Interactive - Rock Back in Time | Interactives The Minerals Council of Australia is acknowledged as the provider of this resource. In this learning object, users choose a rock sample and find out how it was formed millions of years ago. For example, how coal was formed in a swampy forest. Explore the Earth’s surface at the time when the rock formed. Look at maps, landscapes, living things and environments. Compare temperatures and sea levels with those of today. Educational value statement Key learning objectives Students explore changes in the Australian landmass, environments and living things over the last 545 million years.Students compare climatic conditions and sea levels over geological time.Students relate geological changes in the Earth’s surface to plate tectonics.Students identify major periods in the geological time scale. Strands Science/Natural and processed materialsScience/Science inquiry skillsScience/Science understanding. Australian Curriculum content statements (explicit)Science: ACSSU153; [ACSIS144]
seiche Fossil Fuels Fossil fuels: Energy from fossilised organic materials Custom Search How it works: Coal is crushed to a fine dust and burnt. Oil and gas can be burnt directly. The main bit to remember: More: More details on 'clean coal technology' from BBC News web site... Other fossil fuels are being investigated, such as bituminous sands and oil shale. As far as we know, there is still a lot of oil in the ground. Find out more at www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/canada.html Disadvantages Basically, the main drawback of fossil fuels is pollution. About Bioenergy - Bioenergy Australia Imagine energy made from renewable sources that could fuel your car, warm your home, or transport a plane. This energy source is not a fossil fuel, unlike petroleum, it is sustainable and increases the security of our energy supplies. It is sourced affordably and locally, and its industry stimulates regional development and employment in Australia. This is the future: bioenergy. Bioenergy is energy derived from plants, animals, and their by-products and residues. Bioenergy is the world’s primary source of renewable energy, providing approximately a tenth of the world’s total primary energy. Estimates indicate that bioenergy could sustainably contribute between 25% and 33% to the future global primary energy supply (up to 250 EJ) in 2050. Bioenergy has a vital role to play as part of Australia's clean energy future.
Fossil fuels Fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas were formed over millions of years from organic matter like plankton, plants and other life forms. Over time, sand, sediment and rock buried the organic matter and it eventually formed large quantities of fuels. These underground resources, known as fossil fuels, are still the primary fuel source for electricity, heating and powering vehicles around the globe. Five main fossil fuels Coal is a combustible black or brown organic sedimentary rock. It’s mostly carbon and is typically found as layers (coal beds) or veins (coal seams). Natural gas is a combustible mix of hydrocarbon gases. Oil is mostly known as crude oil or condensate, but includes all liquid hydrocarbon fossil fuels. Petroleum is a liquid fuel made of hydrocarbons and other liquid organic compounds. Liquefied petroleum gas or LPG is heavier than natural gas. Inside a gas plant: fast, flexible fuel Ever wondered how gas is converted into electricity for your home? Source: Origin Energy
engineering Surveying, cadastral surveying, laser surveying, hydrographic surveying, mining surveying, land surveying | A Life Without Limits There are many specialisations within Surveying you can choose from, depending on your interests and whether you want to work in the city, country or coastal areas. Land Surveying Land (Cadastral) Surveyors determine and advise on property boundaries when land is subdivided, bought or sold. Engineering New freeway systems, bridges and high-rise buildings all need precise planning. Mining Mining Surveyors design and measure mines, tunnels and other underground works. Hydrographic Hydrographic Surveyors map the sea floor and other waterways. Environmental Projects Surveyors are integral to sustainable development and environmental projects as they measure the change in geographic information. Geodesy Geodesy is a science of the measurement and mapping of the earth’s surfaces. Topographic Topographic Surveyors measure elevation points on land and the environment. Remote Sensing Geographic information systems are used widely for planning decisions. Archaeology Forensics
Contour Education Australia's Science Channel | Electric car sales tripled last year - here’s what we can do to keep them growing There are plenty of arguments for electric cars and they’re not all about the environment. Credit: Jens Kalaene / AAP Why This Matters: We need to fill up the tank with lessons from others if Australia wants to keep electric car sales growing. A total of 6718 electric vehicles were sold in Australia in 2019. The sales figures were published in the wake of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that sales of petrol or diesel cars will be banned in the UK by 2035. If Australia wants to head in the same direction, we can learn from what others have done. Why should we go electric? The main argument for electric vehicles is often about cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Also: Don’t trust the environmental hype about electric vehicles? Australians have been slow to adopt electric cars, however. Obstacles are clearing for the electric car Range anxiety should be on the decline. Electric car prices are also on the way down. Lessons from New Zealand More Like This
Unburnable carbon 2013: Wasted capital and stranded assets This new research from Carbon Tracker and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE calls for regulators, governments and investors to re-evaluate energy business models against carbon budgets, to prevent $6trillion carbon bubble in the next decade. Unburnable carbon 2013: Wasted capital and stranded assets has revealed that fossil fuel reserves already far exceed the carbon budget to avoid global warming of 2°C, but in spite of this, spent $674billion last year to find and develop new potentially stranded assets. “Smart investors can see that investing in companies that rely solely or heavily on constantly replenishing reserves of fossil fuels is becoming a very risky decision. The carbon budget deficit Between 60-80% of coal, oil and gas reserves of publicly listed companies are ‘unburnable’ if the world is to have a chance of not exceeding global warming of 2°C (click image for larger version of the diagram) Stranded assets Wasted capital Recommendations
sis_cube_about About the implementation of CUBE in SIS The CUBE (Combined Uncertainty and Bathymetry Estimator) algorithm is developed at The Centre for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (C-COM)/Joint Hydrographic Centre (JHC) at University of New Hampshire. The algorithm is available as a library and is used inside one separate module in SIS. The CUBE algorithm can be used as an alternative data gridding and data cleaning method in SIS. The gridding and data cleaning is a default process done by the GridEngine. Cube is not available when logging data. The CUBE module in SIS receives ping data on UDP where depth and angle gate are applied to the data. The GridEngine holds both a processing grid and a display grid. The implementation of LOD in the GridEngine also results in less sensitivity to the grid cell size when displaying grids - see the next four figures. SIS must chose between either GridEngine or CUBE grids. CUBE also need some amount of data density to do the gridding.
Teacher Earth Science Education Programme - TESEP: Home page Electric Car Class - Classroom - BTN From an old gas guzzler to an electrified engine. These grease monkeys in Bendigo are creating a car fit for the future. ABI: So, we're restoring an old car and we're turning it into an electric car. DANIELLE: After we strip it down, we're gonna get I think we're going to get new parts and we're gonna put them all back together. Like these students, you probably know that petrol and diesel cars produce air pollution because their engines burn fuel and that's why lots of experts reckon the way forward is this greener option. FORD ADVERTISEMENT: It's the all new F1-50 lightning. Some of the world's biggest car companies have started shifting their models to electric ones. US REPORTER: Mr President. JOE BIDEN, US PRESIDENT: This sucker's quick. And some governments have been trying to encourage people to buy them. JOE BIDEN, US PRESIDENT: The future of the auto industry is electric. But in Australia, things seem to be moving like my old 1988 Ford Laser with the air con on, quite slowly.
Australia's carbon bubble The Australian Coal Association recently hired some consultants (ITS Global) to review the carbon bubble thesis. For clarification, here are our corrections and responses to their output. The two degree commitment Our reports use this as a reference point, as it is indeed the stated objective of the international community. We respect the right of companies, investors and other parties to take a view on how likely this outcome may be. The implications of not achieving the two degree target As has been widely documented by a range of institutions from the World Bank to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the social, economic and environmental impacts of global warming will have far wider and more serious consequences than tackling emissions. Other factors reducing coal use, eg air quality We are always careful to note that, whilst negotiations continue, there are already a number of measures in place that are not explicitly linked to carbon or climate change. Ignoring CCS Misquoting the IEA
Improving on CUBE for Bathymetric Modeling In a previous post I briefly described a parallel processing approach to bathymetric estimation from soundings. In the post I mentioned that I believe I had improved on the CUBE (Combined Uncertainty Bathymetric Estimation) algorithm. Well it's not very fair to make a statement like that without at least trying to substantiate it - so here goes. CUBE is really designed to model uncertainty and create bathymetric terrain models from multi-beam echo sounder (MBES) data. It is implemented in software products such as Fledermaus. It can perform estimation on multiple MBES datasets and can even (so I've been told recently - although I have not yet tested it myself) account for temporal uncertainty (i.e. a more recent dataset has less uncertainty than an older dataset). The CUBE algorithm uses a sensor model to assign uncertainties in the vertical and horizontal domain to each sounding before estimation. Fig 1: Typical uncertainty in the vertical domain for MBES data. Desirable Case: