My Life Line (Ep.10) Geo & KT
As mentioned in a previous episode, I decided to become a geo while on my Solo at Outward Bound the year before I went back to Uni in 1979. I’ve been a member on and off since then with the pre-cursors of the Geoscience Society of NZ. The last field trip I did was with the Auckland Geology Club sub-branch to Motutapu in the 90s looking at the cliffside exposure of the Waitemata sedimentary sequence with Drs Peter Ballance and Murray Gregory.
During my first Uni term break I volunteered to be a field guide on KT (I called her that after the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary when the dinosaurs became extinct after an asteroid hit what is now Mexico), my younger sisters’ school trip at the outdoor education school on Motutapu. I took groups on walking tours to the summit of the adjacent Rangitoto volcano, the most spectacular jewel in the Hauraki Gulf (Americas Cup race area) with its crown forming a perfect giant green cone visible from anywhere in Auckland. I described the geology and we explored the lava tubes and crater ring. At that time, I did not show much interest in the amazing plant life other than noting how well it had colonised the harsh rocky, Hawaiian ropey pahoehoe and blocky aa basalt surface in the few hundred years since the last eruption. Rangitoto is one of 50 volcanic centres around the Auckland isthmus.
I guess I have been keen to teach as an instructor, guide or mentor for most of my life. My wife thinks it’s because I love to tell people what I know however it’s more about trying to create a better understanding and connection between people and the planet and besides they say the best way to learn is to teach. My problem was that I tended to talk at rather than connect with people!
On our 2nd-year Geo field trip to Port Waikato in 1980, I met my mates Nige, born in and named after Nigeria, where his folks were based after WWII[1], and Rick, and now we’ve been mates for over 40 years. Nige was my best man at my wedding and I’ll be Ricks best man at his wedding later this year. Nige was a rock hound before we met, from black opal fossicking at Lightening Ridge in OZ as a teenager and geochem sampling for tungsten (Wolframite) in the riverbeds of the South Island NZ as a Uni student. He has worked all over Oceania in order to pursue his profession and like me and many other geo professionals became surplus to requirements with cyclic downturns in the mining industry and the first to be cut by unproductive bean counters for the sake of short-term share prices. Without new resources or projects being developed the cost-constrained model may save money in the short-term but creates no future potential.
The epitome of my career has been to work on the mega Queensland coal seam (bed methane) gas (CSG) projects for 4.5-years. My geoscience, regulatory and environmental background proved to be invaluable for the complex engineering, environmental and jurisdictional aspects of these projects. I firmly believe that CSG development causes no long-term environmental impacts including from fracking (CSIRO[2] has proven this), and they frequently repair historically poorly constructed water wells (sub-standard installation and maintenance, and depleted from over pumping).
Managed aqifer recharge of depleted aquifers can reverse the pressure losses from over extraction and geosquestration (carbon storage) although having a limited immediate impact of 10s of kms can recharge all reservoirs/aquifers for 100s of kms. CSG also creates wealth to improve conditions for the whole community and has led to an incredible understanding of the Great Artesian Basin, the largest in the world, and proves how this essential water resource can be an ESD[3]. The fossil water trapped within impermeable aquitards composed of brackish (saline) coal deposits wouldn’t have been available for use today without fracking and filtration! CSG development throughout OZ is essential to replace dirty coal and provide feedstock for fertiliser and future transition fuel production, e.g., ammonium nitrate, ammonia and hydrogen.
Although I’ve worked on the ‘environmental’ side of the fence for most of the last 30-years, my underlying geoscience background has proved invaluable to understanding and providing solutions in the mining and construction field.
I talk about my exciting experiences on oil rigs and mines in future episodes.
[1] World War 2
[2] Australian Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation
[3] Ecological Sustainable Development