The Earth Story

Lightning strike filmed in the Congo

Refugees and the Environment

While the toll on humanity when faced with a refugee crisis is undeniable, the impact on the environment has the possibility of vastly changing the ecology of a region as well. In times of war and civil unrest, refugee camps that spring up are frequently densely packed and poorly managed, especially in regions that are already stressed.

Today, the Syrian refugee crisis is putting enormous strain on neighboring countries that are hosting camps for Syrians fleeing the war. Some of the biggest impacts include deforestation, erosion, and depletion or pollution of water resources. In a region that is already facing dwindling fresh water reserves, the influx of thousands of refugees both strains the water supply and causes tensions between locals and the new population.

Ethnic tensions can further damage local ecosystems, as seen in Zaire following the Rwandan Civil War and genocide. Military groups of both Hutus and Tutsis used the refugee camps in Zaire to attack one another, ultimately leading to two more civil wars over the next five years and the formation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Together the wars were deadlier than any conflict since the end of World War I, and had a massive impact on the region's ecology. Vast swaths of Africa’s forests were threatened by attempts to deny cover to the fighting militias. This policy is reminiscent of the United States’ effort to defoliate much of southern Vietnam through chemical agents such as the infamous Agent Orange.

However, unlike Vietnam, the region’s plant life returned fairly quickly. Large parts of the Virunga Volcanoes region was cleared, but bamboo grows quickly, and the region has recovered. The forests that were heavily forested by refugee camps happened to be in an area often affected by volcanic flows, and the species that grow there are able to recover rapidly.

But Africa’s wildlife did not fare so well. The Goma-Rutshuru road was heavily deforested and the setting for a number of conflicts. It also cuts across a major migration route for elephants and other large mammals. War zones also bring arms dealers, and the easy availability of automatic weapons led to a sharp increase in poaching. Almost the entire population of hippopotamus were killed along two major rivers. The sudden population drop has had the subsequent effect of changing local vegetation and damaging the fishing industry of the region. ~RA

Image: http://bit.ly/2rVuFo5

Sources: http://bit.ly/2hw4cb0 http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5520

Nyiragongo

The Virunga Mountains form a formidable barrier across the western arm of Africa’s Rift Valley, a major fracture zone in the earth’s crust. Located to the north of Lac (Lake) Kivu, the chain of volcanic peaks extends west to east for about 80km (50 miles). Highest of the eight major peaks in the group is Karisimbi at about 15000ft (4507 meters). According to local legend, its snow-capped summit is the eternal resting place of the souls of the pure and virtuous. By contrast, the westernmost peak in the range, Nyiragongo 11382ft (3470 meters), is said to be the place where doomed souls are sent to expiate their sins.

People living in the area have good reason for regarding Nyiragongo with fear and foreboding. For, while most of the Virunga volcanoes are dormant or extinct, Nyiragongo is still very much alive. One of the youngest peaks in the group, it began to form only about 20,000 years ago and has been active ever since. In 1948, a lava flow from a cone on Nyiragongo’s flanks streamed all the way to the shores of Lac Kivu 16km to the south, and until early 1977 Nyiragongo was one of the few volcanoes in the world with a lake of molten lava in its crater.

The mountain, which is now one of the attractions of Zaïre’s Virunga National Park, was unknown to the outside world until around 1894, when it was first explored. Scientists long suspected that its crater contained a pool of fiery lava for, at night the plume of steam rising from the vent glowed with a reddish light. However, it was not until 1948 that a scientific expedition actually confirmed the existence of the lava lake. Much studied ever since, the lake, which lies in a deep 2km (1.2 mile) wide crater, has fluctuated dramatically in size and level over the years. In 1953 it covered an area of about 120,000 m2, but by 1958 its level had dropped by 20m and it had shrunk to half of its normal size.

In 1958 a scientific team made a daring descent into the crater and camped there for a week. They discovered that the temperature of the lava on the surface of the lake, which by then covered a mere 19,000 m2, varied between 1000 and 1200°C (1832 and 2192°F). Never completely quiescent (a state of inactivity), the liquid boiled constantly at two corners of the pool, creating fiery fountains. An expedition in 1966 discovered that the situation in the crater had changed radically. Nyiragongo’s lava pool was now seething with activity, hurling out lava bombs and sensing up bursts of flaming gas. Moreover, a whole new supply of lava had welled up into the pool, raising its level and increasing its surface area ninefold—to 170,000 m2.

A series of violent eruptions began late December 1976 and continued through most of January 1977. New cones were built up on Nyiragongo’s flanks, and streams of amazingly fluid (low viscosity) lava poured down the slopes. By the time this burst of activity came to an end, the lake in the depths of Nyiragongo’s crater was drained completely. The most recent eruption was in 2002 killing 147 people and displacing hundreds of thousands more and is still very much active today.

~ JM

Image Credit. Labelled for reuse: http://bit.ly/29Ry8tI. Accessed on 13/7/16.

More Info: Nyiragongo Volcano: http://bit.ly/29A5FpB Global Volcanism Program Nyiragongo: http://s.si.edu/29KOIfN National Geographic. The Volcano Next Door. Nyiragongo. http://bit.ly/29EOPeX Nyiragongo volcano short video: http://bit.ly/29yvbMW

Conichalcite

The beauty of copper minerals never seems to be exhausted, and the distinctive grassy yellow- green of this complex calcium copper arsenate is no exception. Many copper minerals, including the well known carbonates azurite and malachite were ground down for use in paints and pigments, including conichalcite. It forms in the oxidised zone of copper ore deposits, where primary sulphides have been altered into a bewildering variety of secondary ones on contact with percolating groundwater. The typical habit (shape it takes in nature) is a crust of needle shaped crystals on limonite (an iron oxide rich ore), sometimes occurring in botryoidal form (bubble shaped).

The name comes from the Greek words for powder and copper, and was bestowed in 1849. Notable localities are found in the Zaire copper belt, the western USA, Mexico, Chile, the Tsumeb mine in Namibia (see http://on.fb.me/1c2CjkD) and Poland. The 7.0 x 4.4 x 4.0 cm specimen with white calcite atop hails from the Ojuela mine in Mexico, which has produced many fine specimens over the years.

Loz

Image credit: Spirifer Minerals http://www.galleries.com/Conichalcite http://www.mindat.org/min-1119.html

Peat bog the size of England will help unravel Congo Basin's climate history.

Peat is a predecessor to coal, the partly rotted remains of plant life that contain a large proportion of organic matter, formed in low oxygen conditions that inhibit decay. It turns into the latter due to the heat and pressure as the peat is gradually covered in further sediments and the temperature and pressure increase, baking it into various grades of coal, from lignite to anthracite. They usually form in colder environments, since low temperatures inhibit rotting, so there was considerable surprise when satellite data implied a huge one was sitting pretty in a remote part of Africa's largest river basin spread over both the Congos (Kinshasa and Brazaville).

Researchers followed up the satellite data, venturing deep into the jungle on a 3 week trek in roadless areas to confirm the bog's existence, and found a layer some 8 metres thick gently accumulating. Not only has a major carbon sink been confirmed, but a careful analysis of the layers, their chemistry and the kinds and proportions of plant remains (including pollen) within should give us unprecedented climate data in a region whose history is poorly known. As one of the world's great basins it affects both regional and global climate, and being able to trace its internal evolution through this bog will help resolve the many complex interconnections within and between regions that form global climate. This in turn will allow more precise modelling of future climate in a fast changing world. We don't know yet how long it has been growing, but the team suggests at least 10,000 years.

The marsh is only accessible in the two months at the end of the dry season when the water level has fallen, but the team still had to build platforms to pitch their tents or cook due to the waterlogged conditions. Gorillas, elephants and crocodiles also complicated the expedition's progress, since this area is a haven for wildlife, being sparsely inhabited for obvious reasons. Such a major discovery also shows how there remain some places on our planet that are hard to reach and little spoiled, thanks to being uninhabitable by anything more complex than small groups of hunter gatherers.

Loz

Image credit of a peat bog in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina: Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Corbis

http://bbc.in/1jUGBeT http://bit.ly/1kma2H6 http://bit.ly/1k9fZIi