Underground Coal Mining

There are five types of underground mining.

• Drift mining 
• Shaft mining
• Room and pillar mining 
• Continuous mining 
• Longwall mining 

Drift Mining 

Drift mining is only possible when the coal seam is horizontal with the surface, thus allowing not much digging because it's on the side surface of mountains and hills.
Advantages:

• Easier to obtain coal because it falls down the slope.

Disadvantages:

• When drift mining first started, it was very dangerous because shafts would cave in, causing lots of deaths for miners. 

  

Shaft Mining
Shaft mining the most common type of mining in West Virginia.  Elevators are set on the land's surface and then allows the elevators to go underground.  Miners then dig to get to the coal in the shaft and take back coal to the elevators up to land to be processed.  Miners are at least 1000 feet below the Earth's surface, and is quite dangerous.
Advantages:

• Shaft mining is the deepest form of mining, allowing miners to get coal that is deeper in the Earth's core. 
• The large movement of air helps circulate for miners, but also gets rid of toxic gas buildup. 

Disadvantages:

• Shaft mines are useless after all the coal is taken away from the shafts.  It is easier to shut down the mine, rather than trying to reuse it.  It can be very dangerous. 
• Over time, beams that support the shaft can rot away, causing roof breaks. 

Room and Pillar Mining
This is one of the least effective types of mining coal, considering at least half of the coal mined has to be kept in the ground to support the mine roof.  Pillars supporting the roof can squeeze from pressure, causing a collapse, making Room and Pillar mining quite dangerous.  Roof falls are always a constant danger.
Advantages:

• No major advantages.

Disadvantages:

• It is very ineffective.
• Doesn't make much of a profit. 
• Pillars have to be moved or replaced often, making it unsafe for workers. 

Continuous Mining
In this type of mining, a variety of machines are used for mining, rather than a lot of workers.  There are still workers, but they operate the machines, which is safer.  One miner can operate a rotating steel drum that can process at least five tons of coal per minute.
Advantages:

• The use of machines are enforced.
• The machines do way more work in a small amount of time.

Disadvantages:

• Malfunctions on machines.
• Machine related accidents for miners.

Longwall Mining
This is also known as "retreat mining."  Large mining machines support the underground roof with hydraulics as it removes coal.  When the coal is removed, the roof is then allowed to fall.  Longwall mining is very similar to Room and Pillar mining, but is safer and much more effective.
Advantages:

• Longwall mining is usually used after old room and pillar mines are no longer usable, allowing it to be reused.  

Disadvantages: 

• There have been several reports of surfaces dropping, causing lots of water leakage problems. 

Coal. Nifty stuff.

Coal is and has always been important to American society.  Coal is especially important in West Virginia, considering it is a large part of its economy.

One might wander, how is coal formed or made?
Way back in ancient times, when all land was just Pangaea, marshes and swamps took over the area that is currently West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, along with other countries that share the same ecosystems like England and Ireland.  Dead plants like ferns, would die and fall into the swamp, and would bury into the marsh, causing the ferns and other plants to smother.  Sediment would cover the marsh and dead plant.  With no oxygen and time, the smothered plants became "peat," a type of coal.  Over time, peat would be compressed by at least 80% of compression, making it coal.  It has a very low heat value, and was also used in primarily homes in England and Europe.

Analyzing Graph Data

Anyone can easily read the data from the November Aerosol data chart. As time progresses, the surface temperature of the asphalt and football field decrease slowly as winter temperatures increase. Percent transmission and AOT slowly increase as time progresses, with a large jump in increase toward the end of the November month.  As temperature decreases, AOT and percent transmission increases.

EXAMPLE:
On November 29, 2012, the overall temperatures of the football field and asphalt were 5.8 and 4.3 degrees Celsius, respectively.  Right before this temperature occurrence, the AOT and percent transmission increased rapidly.

Aerosols

Contrary to popular belief, aerosols surprisingly have both negative and positive effects on global warming.  According to NASA, aerosols cool the Earth's surface, because it reflects sunlight back to the atmosphere.  This causes a cooling process, and is all determined by the aerosol size.  An easy to see cooling process are the various clouds in the sky.  Clouds are formed by aerosol particles; the more aerosol particles, the heavier cloud, thus rainfall.

Now, on to the popular part.  Aerosols are famously known for being "bad" and "harmful" to the atmosphere.  That is correct, but only when there's an increase in carbon dioxide.  This is usually from human activity, which started around 1000-2000 years ago, when life started to become a thing on Earth (ncdc.noaa.gov).  The build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps other gasses from leaving, causing the greenhouse effect, thus a warmer Earth.

November 7. 2012 notes summary

The Earth's atmosphere is 99% of atmospheric gases, with water vapor being the largest greenhouse gas.  Other gases in the atmosphere (mainly in the troposphere) are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other gasses.  These gases are invisible, unlike smog that contains nitrogen and VOC's in the ozone.  This is found in larger cities.  Speaking of smog, the greenhouse effect is very important to teh atmosphere, even more so the ozone.  Infrared radiation is emitted to Earth's surface due to the warming of the atmopshere.  The main gases responsible for this are water vapor and carbon dioxide.  Aerosols are also wtih the greenhouse effect (manmade, soil, salt, ash). Pressure is important with the atmosphere, pulling gases towards earth.  The higher the pressure, air is thinner, making it harder to breathe. 

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Solar radation cosists of albedo (radation reflected back into space) and absorption (radation not reflected into space).  Urban heat island effect is usually found in metro areas.  Clouds are definded by shape, form, and base altitude.  Concerning wind and air pressure, warm air expans and leaves low pressure and cold air sinks and leaves high air pressure.  Uneven heating makes some places warmer, and warm air follows cold air.  Humidity is the amount of water vapor stuck inbetween molecules in the air and depends on air temperature. 

Group review.

The following is a small and logical conclusion and overview of what I enjoyed and did not enjoy of my group.

Three things I enjoyed:

1. There was a nice balance of people's strengths. 
2. Each person worked well with one another.  No arguing or misconceptions were involved.
3. Everyone actually did their work, for the most part.

Three things that could have been better:

1. More collaboration with the power point, rather than one person doing it.  Same with other tasks.
2. Everyone work everyday, not just somedays.  This isn't a big issue because everyone did get their work completed on time in a great and professional manner.
3. More communication while working in groups in class.

Aerosols and their Effects

Aerosols, defined by dictionary.com, are substances packaged under pressure with a “gaseous propellant for release as a spray of fine particles.”  Aerosols in the ozone layer come from everyday products like hairspray, cans of paint, and other things like air conditioners.  Some aerosols are natural, like dust, sea salt, and volcanic ash.  Dust and sea salt are mainly the only two "natural" aerosols and they are the most abundant in the atmosphere, leaving man made aerosols with a smaller percentage in the atmosphere.  

Aerosols affect climate and weather because it helps with chemical changes in the atmosphere.  The particles mixed in with the ozone particles get hot from the sun and harmful rays, causing the aerosol particles to burn the ozone.  The burning of the ozone lead to a warmer climate because of allowing more UVB rays into the Earth’s atmosphere.  Basically, aerosols are a leading factor to the harm of humans.  Aerosols give the same effects to humans, because they are one of the leading causes for the depletion of the ozone.  The small difference is, every human and other living thing breathes in most of these aerosols.  Some, like man made chemicals, can cause great damage to one's health.