GOLD IN THE COALS

GOLD IN THE COALS
By
DR. NITISH PRIYADARSHI
The origin of coal
Coal is a result of the accumulation and slow decay of plant remains in sedimentary strata. It undergoes in situ compaction under water with time, accompanied by biochemical processes such as decomposition due to bacterial action, dehydration, loss of volatile compounds (e.g. methane, higher hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and nitrogen) and densification to form various ranks of coal depending on environmental conditions. In absence of atmospheric oxygen, the plant matter is further degraded by the action of anaerobic bacteria, which extract and utilize oxygen from organic molecules containing oxygen like lignin.
Gold in coals
Gold is an ultra trace constituent of coal and is rarely determined. There are early reports of gold in coal, for example it was detected in a coal from Wyoming, USA. About 1 ppm gold was found in some coals from Utah and upto 3 ppm gold in coal from Cambria, Wyoming-North Dakota, USA. Goldschmidt and Peters found 0.2-1ppm gold in some German coal ashes. Leutwein in 1956 mentioned some peats with rather high amount of gold.
There are some results (as parts per billion) for gold in coal, namely less than 1 to 10 for Australia, 1.0-2.5 for the Lithgow seam, NSW, Australia, 10-140 for Belgium, mean value for Bulgaria, 1-96 for Canada, 1.2-10 for the United Kingdom.
Recently samples of Jurassic and Paleogene brown coals and peat samples from the South-eastern region of the Western-Siberian platform were analyzed for gold by the neutron-activation method.
Mean content of gold in Jurassic coals is 30 ± 8 ppb, in Paleogene coals is 10.6 ± 4.8 ppb, and in peat is 6 ± 1.4 ppb. Concentrations of gold as high as 4.4 ppm were found in coal ash and 0.48 ppm in the peat ash. Coal beds with anomalous gold contents were found at Western-Siberian platform for the first time.
However, there is a need for much more data to clarify the situation.

Reference:
International Journal of Coal Geology Volume 68, Issues 3-4, 2 October 2006, Pages 127-134

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
Geologist
Email: nitish.priyadarshi@gmail.com

IS IT SAFE TO BURY CARBON DIOXIDE TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING?

IS IT SAFE TO BURY CARBON DIOXIDE TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING?
By
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi

Each time you draw breath today, 380 molecules per million are carbon dioxide. That portion climbs about two molecules every year. Scientists know that carbon dioxide is warming the atmosphere, which in turn is causing sea level to rise, and that the carbon dioxide absorbed by the oceans is acidifying the water. But they are unsure of exactly how climate could alter across the globe, how fast sea level might rise, what a more acidic ocean could mean, which ecological systems on the land and in the sea would be most vulnerable to climate change and how these development might affect human health and well-being.

By burning fossil fuels-coal, oil, and natural gas- we are adding to the concentration of carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide concentration is now 379 parts per million. This is significantly more than it has been at any time in the past 600,000 years. The consensus among climatologists is that the increased carbon dioxide concentration is the main cause of the increase in global temperature.

One way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is to rely more on alternative energy source that do not produce CO2. These include hydroelectric, wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, and tidal energy. Each of these has limitations, and it will be difficult to make a quick shift from fossil fuels to these other sources. But what if the CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels did not reach the atmosphere? Instead of letting CO2 go up the smokestack and into the air, can we capture it and put it somewhere? Is this possible?
Yes, it is. The process is called CO2 capture and storage. It is being done on a small scale right now. It has the potential to make a significant difference in the amount of CO2 we release into the atmosphere. As the name implies, there are two phases to the process. The first challenge is to capture the CO2 instead of letting it go up the smokestack. Then it has to be stored or “sequestered” safely and for a long time. The idea of sequestering CO2 to reduce the amount entering the atmosphere is fairly new. But the technology needed to do this has been developed for other reasons.
The best place to capture CO2 is at the major sources of emissions. Power stations that generate electricity produce about one-third of global CO2 emissions. In addition, CO2 is a by-product of iron and steel production, and cement production. CO2 is also removed from natural gas before it can be used as a fuel. These industrial processes are good candidates for CO2 capture and storage because they are large-scale sources in a fixed place. In contrast, it would be difficult to capture CO2 emissions from automobiles.

Storage in Geological Formations is currently the most promising solution for widespread, long term sequestration of CO2. The study shows that carbon dioxide could be compressed as it leaves the power plant and injected through a well deep underground into a natural sub layer consisting of porous rock, such as sandstone or limestone, saturated with saltwater. Some projects are already under the way. In order to reduce greenhouse gases and global warming, stored carbon dioxide must be kept out of atmosphere for hundreds or thousands of years. Oil and natural-gas reservoirs, deep saltwater aquifers, and coal seams have existed for millions of years with only very gradual changes. There is strong evidence that if properly managed, these formations could provide for long-term storage of carbon dioxide.

There are many underground sealed geological “traps” that have never contained oil or natural gas. Their pores are filled with water. These are called aquifers. The aquifers that are most suitable for CO2 storage are deep underground .They are filled with salt water, so they are unsuitable for supplying or storing fresh water for human use. CO2 would partially dissolve in the water in the aquifer. In some rock types, it might react with minerals to form stable carbonate deposits. This would permanently lock up the CO2. Geological studies would need to be made, as is routinely done for oil and natural-gas reservoirs, to confirm that the aquifer would not leak carbon dioxide.

Another potential storage medium is in coal deposits that are too deep to be mined. Coal is mostly carbon. It will absorb CO2 and lock it up permanently. In the process it releases methane that was previously adsorbed to the coal surface and that may be recovered. But the big problem arises here. Methane the other green house gas if not trapped properly can create more problem than CO2. After carbon dioxide, methane is the second most important greenhouse gas. Scientists believe that methane may have caused up to 20 percent of the global warming in the last 200 years. The gas is also highly flammable, which means it catches fire easily. Though methane remains in the atmosphere for only twelve years it may cause problem if not handed properly.

Storage of the carbon dioxide is envisaged either in the deep geological formations, deep oceans, or in the form of mineral carbonates. In the case of deep ocean storage, there is a risk of greatly increasing the problem of ocean acidification, a problem that also stems from the excess of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere and oceans. Geological formations are currently considered the most promising sequestration sites, and these are estimated to have storage capacity of at least 2000 Gt C02 (currently, 30 Gt per year of carbon dioxide is emitted due to human activities). The State like Jharkhand of India which is reach in coal mines and thermal power stations, most of the areas are composed of highly weathered metamorphic rocks. Great amount of small to medium size fractures and joints are present in rocks. In the coal fields area numerous faulting has also been identified. It can allow escape of the carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere if injected here. It will multiply the problem.

Possible risks of capturing carbon dioxide:

1.Two classes of risk must be addressed for every storage reservoir: gradual and sudden leakage. Gradual release of carbon dioxide merely some of the green house gas to the air. Rapid escape of large amounts, in contrast, could have worse consequences than not storing it at all.

2. Although carbon dioxide is usually harmless, a large, rapid release of the gas is worrisome because high concentrations can kill.

3. Gradual leaks may pose little danger to life, but they could still defeat the climate goals of sequestration.

4. Geologists will have to search for faults in the caprock that could allow escape as well as determine the amounts of injection pressure that could fracture it.

5. Even if the geology is favorable, using storage formations where there are old wells may be problematic.

References:
1.Socolow, R.H. 2005. Can we bury Global Warming. Scientific American India.
2. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/co2-0207.html
3. http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/watch/climate_change/capture.htm
4.Our Warming Planet, 2004. Green alert, Times Editions, Singapore.

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
Geologist
Email: nitish.priyadarshi@gmail.com
rch_nitishp@sancharnet.in

CHOTANAGPUR (JHARKHAND) WAS THE LANKA OF RAMAYANA?

WAS CHOTANAGPUR (JHARKHAND), THE LANKA OF RAMAYANA?
By
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi.
At present many Indian news channels are searching the historical records of the Lord Ram and place of incidents in Ramayana in country of Sri Lanka as well as in India. After the Ram Setu controversy many of us are showing interest regarding the existence of Lord Ram and his warriors. Recently I found an old research report in my Home Library. Report is regarding the site of the Lanka during the Ramayana age.
Report was published by historian Mr. H.D. Sankalia in the year 1971 in the Statesman news paper dated 5/10/1971. According to the report Chotanagpur (Jharkhand State) was the Lanka of Ramayana.

Sankalia is of the opinion that the Ramayana belongs to early iron-age and the Lanka in the holy epic can not be the island of Ceylon (Lanka). According to him, the Lanka of the Ramayana was somewhere in the Chotanagpur Plateau (Ranchi and Hazaribag district) of Jharkhand State of India and the ‘Vanaras’ and ‘Raksasas’ were the merely the Adivasis (tribe) of the area. Asurs were the early settlers in the Jharkhand. He has deduced from archaeological, geographical and botanical interpretation of the clues in the epics. His theory is that the story or the various incidents could have taken place in present Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand Plateau and Eastern Madhya Pradesh as early as 1,500 B.C.
He has sited excavations at Kausambi, Prahladpur, Chirand, Sonpur etc. to reveal the existence of a settled way of life about circa 2,000-1,500 B.C. These earlier cultures were destroyed or displaced by an iron-manufacturing people as is evident from archaeological findings at Mahisadal and Rajar-Dhipi.
In Ranchi district alone are found Asur forts and cemeteries. Over a hundred villages scattered through this region have Asur sites of this “long ancient people”, who were thought by the Mundas as a tall, huge limbed race of Herculean strength, having a much higher civilization. Asur graves are in irregular order and are marked by the slabs. The roof stones are generally 8 feet and sometimes 10 to 12 feet long.

He concludes that the critical edition of Ramayana belongs to the early iron age. “ this is amply proved by the repeated references to weapons of ‘Kalayasa’, Karsayasa’ and ‘Ayasa’ definitely means iron and not copper. At that time in Jharkhand iron smelting by the Asur tribes was flourishing industry. “The iron chest (box) with eight wheels in which the bow of Rudra was kept and which Rama alone could wield, requires highly advanced iron technology.

Ramrekha Pahar (hill) in sylvan surroundings about 25 miles west of Simdega town South of Ranchi district, it is a place of pilgrimage as well as beauty spot. According to Ranchi Gazetteer Lord Ram with his consort Sita and his brother Lakshman spent here a part of their exile. Ramrekha is so called because it is said to possess the footprints of Ram. There is a cave assiciated with the sojourn of Ram during his period of exile. Near the cave is Jalkunda (waterpit) called Ram Ganga, said to have been excavated by Ram through the stroke of his mighty arrow for bathing. This kund resembles a bow. It is deep and has a permanent flow of water. Its water is credited with properties to cure leprosy.
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
email: rch_nitishp@sancharnet.in
nitish.priyadarshi@gmail.com

IRON SMELTING BY ASUR TRIBE- A THING OF THE PAST

IRON SMELTING BY ASUR TRIBE- A THING OF THE PAST
BY
DR. NITISH PRIYADARSHI
The word Asur occurs in a number of places in the Rigveda, Brahamanas, Aranyakas, Upanishadas and Epics which comprise the sacred literature of the Hindus. The Asur have been identified as primitive tribe in Jharkhand State of India. Their original occupation was iron smelting but now very few live by this profession. When the Asurs came to their present area of habitation is not known, but according to legend they lived with their kinsmen the Mundas, who in course in time drove them away. Driven by their kinsmen, the Asurs took shelter in the Netarhat Plateau, where they have been living for centuries unknown. According to other thoughts Asur had settled in Jharkhand before one thousand B.C.
There are references to the asurs in the Rigveda describing them as great builders. Centuries of isolation coupled with exploitation and subjugation by one or the other alien element, have driven the Asur into comparatively inaccessible tract of the land amidst hills and mountains, forests and undulating slopes.
The Asur locality is known as the Netharhat group of plateaus within Chotanagpur Plateau of Jharkhand State of India. The Netarhat plateau hills are of a nearly uniform height of about 3,600 feet above the sea level. The Plateau is formed of LATERITE rocks. It is from these rocks, the Asur used to extract iron ore for iron smelting.
Iron-smelting used to be the principal occupation of the Asurs, but now it has ceased to be so. Few years ago only one furnace was found working at village Ramgaria in Bishunpur thana where only two families worked and earned a very meager living.

IRON SMELTING BY ASURS:-

Three varities of iron ore are recognized by the Asur at the Netharhat Plateau. One is magnetite which is called POLA by the Asur. The other one is Haematite from coal measures known as BICHI and third one is Haematites from Laterite known as GOTA. The Asur were able to locate a site for the ores by observation and experience. On the basis of their family labour iron smelting was carried on by them. Green sal trees were cut by them in the neighbourhood of their furnace for preparing char coal as char coal of green sal was capable of generating sufficient heat for smelting iron ore in their furnaces which were usually located in the neighbourhood of water sources like Dari, Chua or rivulet.
The Asur family engaged in iron smelting perform SANSIKUTASI worship which may be called productive magic, as it is aimed at securing good iron while smelting. All the implements required for smelting and black smithy are collected in the front of the house. A cock and hen both of red colours are sacrificed during the worship. The ritual is followed by dance and drinks and merry-making. The peculiar feature of this festival is that musical instruments which are so essential for all social and festive occasions among the Asur are not played on this occasion when the youths and girls are engaged in dancing. Every head of a family has to don himself with a new piece of cloth on this occasion which is considered important in the annual cycle of festivals of the Asur.

During the last several decades due to the introduction of improved metallurgy and the forest conservation policy of the Government imposing restriction on wanton cutting of forest gave a final death blow to the industry of iron smelting in this plateau. Iron-smelting has now practically become a thing of the past.
References:
Gupta, S.P. 1976. The Asur, Ethno-Biological Profile. Bihar Tribal Welfare Research Institute, Ranchi.
Gupta, S.P. 1974. Tribes of Chotanagpur Plateau. Bihar Tribal Welfare Research Institute, Ranchi.
Ranchi District Gazetteer, 1970. Government of Bihar.
S.K.Singh, 2005. Inside Jharkhand. Crown Publications, Ranchi.

Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
Geologist
Email: nitish.priyadarshi@gmail.com

Did God created the rocks of our Earth in less than 3 minutes?

Did God created the rocks of our Earth in less than 3 minutes?
By
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi

The Old Testament relates that the earth was made in seven days. Most geologists believe that even God couldn't accomplish the task quite that fast.
It has been mentioned that the earth is billion of years old. This is the modern view; the ideas of James Ussher, the theologian who calculated in year 1650 from the biblical record that the earth was created on the morning of 28th October in the year 4004 B.C. held sway well into the nineteenth century. According to Stephen Hawking, the noted British cosmologists the Universe or earth came into existence between Time 0 and the following trillionth of a second about fifteen billion years ago. Indeed there are those who even today ignore the overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary and claim that the biblical legends tell the true story of the earth's creation and history. Up until the 17 and 18 hundreds most everybody believed that the earth was young. A mere 6 thousand years or so.
No where in the Bible or any other religion does God tell us the exact year of creation. But by simply studying the scriptures we can certainly get an idea of when and how this took place.
Scientists with the help of radioactive dating method tell us that the earth is billions of years old, was formed in a molten state; and that it took millions of years for the earth to cool to its solid state that we know today. But still today many young earth creationists believe that the earth was created instantaneously about 6 thousand years ago.
Both of these are belief systems. Neither one can be proven because no one was there to witness the event, and it can not be repeated. But we can examine the evidence and decide which one is more plausible.
Over the last 10 to 20 years, evidence has been gathered which seems to indicate that the earth was created in an instant as mentioned in different religions. The evidence comes from the study of a feature of many igneous rocks ( rocks made by lava).
Most geologists have long accepted a “magmatic” origin for large granite plutons, “batholiths” in which crystallization is imagined to have attenuated over million of years, their magmatic view was technically challenged by Robert Gentry, a physicist with a yen to confirm the biblical tale of genesis. He suggested that the polonium halos, which are found in the minerals biotite and fluorite in granites and associated pegmatites, prove that the host rocks were created, not from magma, but almost instantaneously during the Day-1 of the Genesis Week.
When God created the earth, He left His signature in the earth's foundation granite (type of rock) in the form of microscopic spheres created by pinpoints of the element Polonium 218. Polonium-218 is radioactive and has a half-life of about 3 minutes (in other words, they emit radiation for only a few minutes). In its decay process, this element emits alpha particles. These subatomic particles mark the surrounding rock, producing spheres around the initial pinpoint of the element. If a rock is cut and examined under a microscope, these spheres appear as halos around the initial tiny deposit of the element. Halos produced by other radioactive elements differ from the halos produced by Polonium 218.
The rocks of the earth had to have been created and solidified within about 3 minutes for this element to have left its halos. If the earth had been in a molten state any longer than this, all the isolated points of Polonium 218 would have disappeared, leaving none to cause halos when the rock solidified. However, all evolutionary theories say that the earth was molten for million years.
Since Polonium 218 halos are found by the trillions throughout all the granites of the world, all of that granite had to originally become solid in for less than three minutes, when it was first created, in order for the Polonium 218 has to form properly.
There are many Polonium 218, 214, and 210 halos in granite; in fact, careful specimen counts and extrapolations based on them reveal that there are trillions upon trillions of them in granites all over the world. The situation gets more interesting with Polonium-214 halos. The half life of Polonium-214 is .000164 second. This means that the rock would have to cool in less than 1/1000th of a second after the polonium-214 was created. No known processes of nature can cool and solidify a rock that rapidly.
When a small speck of inclusion of a radioactive substance, such as Uranium-238, is trapped in the rock, the uranium emits alpha particles which destroy the crystal structure of the mineral. Since the alpha particles are emitted from the uranium with a particular speed, the alpha particles can travel only a certain distance through the rock before they stop. When the alpha particles stop, they discolor the rock. Since the alpha particles are emitted in all directions, a spherical shell of discoloration is produced.
While uranium is decaying to lead, it passes through fifteen steps. When an atom of uranium emits an alpha particle, the atom no longer is uranium but becomes thorium which in turn gives off a particle and turns into another element.
The size of each halo is determined by the speed of the alpha particle, for each element in the decay chain has emitted particles with a specified velocity. Thus if one finds a halo of a certain radius, he often can determine what element formed the halo from the radius alone.
Polonium-218, polonium-214 and polonium-210 are the radioactive substance which are responsible for three halos in the characteristic five-ringed uranium halo. These three isotopes of polonium are found today only mixed up in Uranium-238. This is because polonium decays so rapidly that it cannot be stored for more than a few minutes. The only reason it even exists is that it is constantly being formed by the decay of uranium.
Two factors are required before a halo can form.
· A small speck of a radioactive substance must be included in the molten rock before it cools.
· The rock must solidify and form a crystal before all of the radioactivity is ended.
Many theories have been put forward against the Gentry’s hypothesis. According to different geologists Gentry is physicist, not a geologist. He doesn’t follow accepted geologic reporting practice and consistently fails to provide the information that a third party would need to collect comparable samples for testing. Gentry utilized microscope thin sections of rocks from samples sent to him by others from various places around the world.
Gentry also provides no explanation for how polonium alone finds its way into biotite and fluorite, or why radiation damage haloes in these minerals are common in areas of known uranium enrichment, but rare where uranium abundance is low.

Since this granite is the basement rock, forming a thick layer, with the continents of the world above it and the basalt and magma below it, all this continental foundation had to be formed solid in less than three minutes time. With the fact in mind, there is little reason to expect the magma below and the continents above to have been formed in million years, if the granite between them was formed in less than three minutes.
Is it possible that this proves God created the earth in an instant?
There are still lots of questions to be answered?
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
Geologist
Ranchi, India.
Nitish.priyadarshi@gmail.com

References:
Chaudhuri, N.K. and Iyer, R.H. 1980. Origins of unusual radioactive haloes, Radiation Effects, v.53,p.1-6.
Feather, N. 1978, the unsolved problem of Po halos in Precambrian biotite and other old minerals. Communication to Royal Society of Edinburgh, v.11, p. 147-148.
Gentry, R.V. 1970. Giant Radioactive Halos: Indicators of Unknown Radioactivity”. Science, V. 169,pp. 670-673.
Gentry, R.V. 1974. Radio halos in a radiochronological and cosmological perspective. Science, v. 184, p.62-66.
Gentry, R.V. 1992. Creation’s Tiny Mystery. Earth Science Associates, Knowville, TN, 3rd Edition.
Gentry, R. V. A. Rev. Nucl. sci. 23, 347 (1973); Nature 244, 282 (1973); 252, 564 (1974).
Snelling, A. A., 2000. Polonium radiohaloes: Still "a very tiny mystery". Impact 326 (Aug.), i-iv.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/po-halos/gentry.html
http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Polonium_haloes_indicate_a_young_earth
http://www.grisda.org/origins/15032.htm
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v278/n5702/abs/278333a0.html
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/5041/