Brian Johnson's underground coal notes

There are five different methods of underground coal mining. The first type is the most common type of mining in West Virginia and it is shaft mining. You have probably seen these types of mines before because the only way to get down into the mine is to take an elevator straight down usually past 1,000 feet.  The advantages to shaft mining are that we can get a lot of coal out of the mines with huge machines that do all of the work but the bad thing is that a massive mine explosion could happen if the company isn’t carful.

 

Drift mining- Drift mining is another method of coal mining where the opening of the mine is in the side of the mountain instead of drilling down into the ground when the coal seam meets the surface. The coal miners mine horizontally into the coal seam in the mountain.  Drift mining is one of the easiest ways to mine but it is always not the safest because of the danger of collapsing roofs.

 

 

 

 

Room and pillar mining is an underground mining method where they cut out sections of the coal and leave “pillars” in many “rooms” of coal in parts so the coal will support the roof. The bad thing about these types of mines is the nearly half of the coal that is used for the pillars is left behind and there is a constant danger of the roofs collapsing on top of the miners. In room and pillar mining they can use fewer men to extract coal they can use continuous machines that constantly cut coal out of the mounting without the use of multiple miners.  It is a huge machine that has rotating steel drum tungsten carbide teeth that move 5 tons of coal per minute. Continuous miners are used in drift mining and room and pillar mining and have been around since the 1940’s. Click here to see a continuous miner.

The last method of underground mining is the long wall technique.  This method is highly effective because there are hydraulics machines that hold the roof up while they mine the coal and then after they are all done they retreat and let the roof collapse on itself. It is high effective but dangers of roof collapses are still high. 

LBJ's coal notes

                In class we are learning about coal in Appalachia and how it is formed and all of its purposes. The coal we are mining right now is from the Pennsylvania period 300 million years ago when swampy plants got buried under the ground with no oxygen to decompose them.  This absence of oxygen prevents total decay and forms peat which is like a moss that has a low heat let off. A different kind of coal is lignite. Sometimes called brown coal, lignite is low carbon concentrated and is found in in Alaska and western states but has a low heat value. The most common coal is Bituminous coal. It has a high carbon value and burns really hot. This is what we have been mining in our mines for many years now.  The byproduct of burning coal is what is called coke and it is primarily used in the steel industry.

analizing surface temperature graph: brian johnson

In class we took surface temperature of different types of surfaces and took measurement on the aerosols in the air. We then made an excel and a graph on the data. The football field, asphalt and aerosol stayed the same through all of the dates that we took measurements. The percent transmission is how much sun light reaches the earth due to the amount of aerosols in the air rose drastically through the graph. Maybe this was because there was no clouds in the sky that day and nothing was prevent the suns radiation from reaches the earth’s surface.

 

lbjs aerosols blog

Aerosols have an indirect and direct effect on the climate. One direct effect would be how they reduce the amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface. This may offset global warming effects also. Another direct effect of aerosols would be volcanic eruptions that cover the sky in aerosols. Without aerosols we wouldn't have clouds because it is very hard for a cloud start forming when there are no small particles in the air for water droplets to form. This is how aerosols change the properties of clouds for an indirect effect on the climate.

notes summery

Notes Summery

99% of earth’s atmosphere is water vapor only 30 kilometers above earth’s surface. However most of our weather occurs within the first 10 to 14 kilometers. The atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0 to 4% water vapor, 0.37% carbon dioxide, and all the other gases in the world make up the rest.

            Invisible atmospheric gases are nitrogen, argon, oxygen, water vapor, and carbon dioxide, clouds are not gases but condensed vapor in the form of droplets is all they are.

            Ground based smog is visible and has reactants of nitrogen, voc’s and ozone.

The greenhouse effect is the warming of the atmosphere by absorbing and emitting inferred radiation.

There are natural and man made aerosols in the air from soil, ash, sulfur, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons.

Brian's group project evaluation

I think this was a good project to do because it was very interesting. I liked going out and measuring the trees in the transect the most. I also liked finding out what kind of tree it was out in the woods. The third thing I liked about the project was actually finding out how much money in timber is on the hill. It was really hard doing the project by myself though. My parents in my group weren't at school or didn't help out much at all. So I had to do the whole thing in one night an that's the part I don't really like. Overall it was alright but I just wish I had more help on the project.  

Brian's aerosol blog

Aerosols or particulates are fine particles in the air and can either be solid or a liquid aerosol. They are formed from a wide variety of natural and anthropocentric sources like biomass burning, incomplete combustion like black carbon, soil dust and sea salts. These are not good for the climate and can cause changes like an extreme precipitation change. We use aerosols around the house every day that are not harmful, but other aerosols can really affect our lives. If there are more aerosols on the clouds and are reflecting the suns heat it can lead to world global cooling.