Geology Part 1 – Stories from the Great Southern Road Trip

Confessed Geology Nerd!

I’m a rock nerd! I have more than a passing interest in geology and geological formations. Given that I’m a high school science teacher I feel that interest is very legitimate! While my knowledge is rudimentary, (my degree was mostly chemistry) I know enough to be able to read the stories held in rocks. Although it’s more like the abridged Readers’ Digest version, the outline is there! I know the difference between igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks but can’t identify many by name. My recent Great Southern Road Trip gave me lots of opportunities to check out some interesting scenery.

Geology and Geotourism is an increasingly popular way to travel and Geotrails are becoming more common. I have a great map called the Geotourism Map of NSW but I have not found one for the other states. It gives locations and details of some of the interesting formations.

This post shows some of the features I snapped along my way down the NSW coast and ~~then in Tasmania.~~ I missed plenty! I will just have to go back on another road trip – darn. I will give the broad brush strokes of what took my interest rather than a detailed explanation of the geology or geological history. (If you’re a geologist I’m happy to have your input in the comments below!)

Originally, I was planning on covering the geology encountered in both NSW and Tassie in this one post but it’s getting too long so I’ve split it into a two-parter.

Far South Coast of NSW

Jervis Bay – Moe’s Rock and surrounds

I don’t know who Moe was but the rock platforms in this area look bubbly and aerated. More likely there is some differential weathering of the sandstone. The colour of the sandstone also varies significantly. The lumpy, almost pillowy surface adds a lot of interest. While you are here in Booderee National Park have a look at the Cape St George Lighthouse. For the pedantic, Jervis Bay is actually not part of NSW but is governed by the ACT. In addition to whiter than white beaches there is a large-ish naval base there.

Bateman’s Bay – Denham’s Beach.

At the north end of Denham’s Beach there are two interesting features. Firstly the nicely folded rock wall and secondly the large potato like rocks strewn over the rock platform. When I first came across them, I really thought they were potatoes. Smooth, round and light coloured. Some have a coating of green algae. The rock wall has several very distinct strata. At the base is the dark rock which also makes up the platform. It is overlaid with lighter rock with embedded darker stripes.

Eden – South End of Aslings Beach

At the south end of Aslings Beach there is a magnificently striated and folded rock wall. At the base, there is a man-made rock pool. The layers are multi-coloured and in the right light glow with a rich red hue. These two photos taken at different times of the day and from a different angle and show off the folds and erosion.

Light to Light Walk – Green Cape National Park

You can walk from Boyd’s Tower to Green Cape Lighthouse. It is a 33 km walk and typically done over two days. Along the way there are LOTS on interesting features. The colour of the rocks is spectacular especially in contrast to the green-blue ocean. If you don’t want to do the walk, you can still access some of the spots via road. I did parts of the Light to Light Walk and have written about it in another post.

Australia’s Highest Peak – Mt Kosciuszko,

A COVID lockdown in Victoria meant I needed to change my plans (quickly!!!) and head west. I climbed to the top of Mt Kosciuszko on a fine sunny day via the Main Range Loop Track. I have written a separate post about the walk. The landscape is dominated by large granite tors. You can read about how tors form on Wikipedia.

The Rock – near Wagga Wagga

Maybe a little more thought could have gone into the name for this particular landform? The Rock juts out from the landscape very dramatically and is about 30 km south-west of Wagga Wagga. There is a walking trail to the summit, which according to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, is a 6 km return walk. At this stage of my road trip I was a tight schedule to get to Melbourne to board the Spirit of Tasmania, so whizzed past without stopping! (Except to pull over to take the photo!!)

Part 2 – Tasmania

Check out my next post showcasing the geology and some of the geological features in Tasmania. Coming soon!

Healthy weight and mathematics

Maintaining a healthy body weight is a simple matter of mathematics. If your energy intake is higher than your energy output, you’ll gain weight, and if you use more energy than you eat, you’ll lose weight.

Energy in = Energy Out

As simple as that!

Pffft – yeah, right!

Our bodies are burning energy even when we are doing nothing, and because we have not mastered the art of photosynthesis, that energy must come from food. If you eat more food and hence consume more energy than you need, you will store the excess as fatty tissue. It’s not rocket science, even if it is maths!

This not-so-tricky maths gets in the way of things! As is the case with most people, I like eating! I’d like to be able to eat more and maintain a healthy body weight. To do this, I need to use more energy.

Is there a way I can increase my energy expenditure without noticing it?

Our energy use is divided into three components:

Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR. This is the energy we use merely being alive. It is the amount of energy we use when we are at rest, after just waking up and with an empty belly. It accounts for around 60% of the energy sedentary people use each day. BMR is influenced by gender, age, and body mass. Essentially the bigger you are the more energy you need to keep your body idling. The older you get, the less energy you use. (So if your a little old(er) lady like me you’re not burning up much!)
Thermic Effect of Food or TEF is the extra energy we need to digest and absorb our food. It takes energy to break down the food in our digestive system and get it into our bloodstream. TEF is a bit like a service fee. The energy in our food needs to be converted into the type of energy our body can use, and this comes at a cost. It turns out that protein needs more energy to be converted into usable energy. TEF accounts for around 10 – 15% of our average daily energy expenditure.
Activity Thermogenesis (AT) is the energy used up in moving around and is further broken into two categories.
1. 1. Exercise-related activity thermogenesis is the energy we use in deliberate exercise such as going to the gym, running, lifting weights, etc.
  2. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis or NEAT is the incidental energy we use in walking around, picking up the kettle, sitting, standing, talking, shopping, cooking, doing the housework. The stuff we usually don’t change into active wear for!

We have the power to control activity thermogenesis. Since it makes up between 25 – 30% of the energy a sedentary person uses, it is the pathway to tipping the balance in favour of weight loss or gain.

Let’s pause for a little more maths.

Every day has 24 hours.
Let’s say you sleep for 8 of those hours where you are running on your BMR.
That leaves 16 hours for you to burn up more energy.
You spend one of your 16 waking hours at the gym (or running/swimming/whatever) and the other 15 hours doing the rest of life.
That means only 6% of the time is used for exercise activity thermogenesis! For most people living ordinary urban lives, we sit on our butts for most of the other 15 hours! That means for 94% of our waking hours, we are using low levels of energy.

Can you increase the amount of energy you burn in those other 15 hours?

The solution is self-evident! You have to increase the amount of energy you expend in all activities! Be more active and less sedentary! Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!

In real life…not as easy as it sounds.

Life is busy. You can’t spend 5 hours at the gym every day. You have to go to work. You have to get to work, you have to look after your family. You have to DO life. You may not have time to increase your exercise-related activity, but you can increase the amount of energy you expend in non-exercise related activities?

How do you increase NEAT-ness in your life?

Here are a few suggestions. (some more sensible than others!)

Fidget! Fidgeting wastes heaps of energy! Be careful you don’t annoy too many people though.
Don’t sit when you can stand. If you work in an office, get a standing desk.
Don’t stand still if you can fidget or move from side to side or jiggle around on the spot.
Get your smart gadgets to buzz you if you are sitting still for too long.
Walk to the next office to talk to someone rather than ring or email them.
Ditch the remote control. Tape the remote to the TV, so you have to get up to change channels etc.
Don’t sit in front of the telly and do nothing. If you’re going to watch telly – do something! Lie on the floor & do yoga stretches, get some hand weights or resistance bands and do a few (hundred) biceps curls while you’re bingeing on the newest must-watch show. Alternate arms with legs and do some squats, lunges, hopping, hula hooping, etc.
Don’t drive when you can walk or cycle. Pick a minimum distance and walk it. For instance, only drive if your destination is more than 3 km away.
If you do have to drive, there are ways to do a sneaky car workout! It might not use much extra energy, but it’s better than nothing!
Carry heavy things. Carry heavy things further.
Park the car further away from the entrance when you go to the shops
Get off the bus a stop earlier.
Do 50 quick squats/lunges/calf raises while you’re brushing your teeth.
Crank up the tunes while you’re doing the housework and dance like no-one is watching. If you’re doing the housework, probably nobody is watching! Check out these tips for exercises while cleaning. (some are a bit intense!)
Play outdoors with your children/spouse/friends
Take active holidays.
Go for a hike rather than the movies.
Choose more active leisure pursuits. Play tennis, not trivia. Go bowling.
Choose a more active job! A labourer is going to use a lot more energy than an accountant!
Wear fewer clothes and live in a colder climate! If you need to keep yourself warm, you’ll expend more energy.

The bottom line is, just move MORE and move more often.

Just for the record, sitting is NOT the new smoking. Research shows that the increase in mortality brought about by an excessively sedentary life is around 10%. The increase in mortality due to smoking is approximately 80%. So while both are bad for you, sitting is healthy compared to smoking!

Source:

Levin J.A. Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis. Nutrition Reviews Vol 26 No 1 pp S82-S97

Recycling Humans?

Chemistry as it applies to the human population.

Recent bush fires in Australia have had me thinking down some very black roads. Some related to politics, capitalism and how the world could have been better if we had taken advantage of different “sliding door” moments.

I have reflected on climate change, sustainability, the death of native animals, destruction of houses and communities. I thought about the moments in history which have led us here to this time and place.

…And then I got to thinking about thermodynamics. About available energy and matter. The fact that there is a finite number of atoms on this Earth.

The big question in my mind then became “How many people could live on this planet without ruining it?”

As a chemist, I have studied closed system reactions. Our earth is essentially a closed system. A closed system only has a certain number of atoms available so once you use them up the reactions have to stop. Rearranging atoms usually uses up energy. Energy is also limited.

These limited atoms are used to make up all the things on Earth including humans. There are an estimated 7,656 million people on the planet. Let’s say the average mass of a human is around 80kg. That’s 612,480 million kilograms of humans. (1 kilo = 2.2 lbs)

If we wind back the clock just 300 years to the 1700s, the estimated upper limit[1] of the human population was 680 million. That means there is an extra 558,080 million (558,080,000,000) kg of human flesh on the planet now compared to then.

Most of those extra kilograms have come from other living things in our closed system because we eat them. There has to be a time when we simply run out of atoms and energy to keep making more humans. The majority of the energy we are using now has come from the stored energy of ancient living things – a.k.a fossil fuel.

While some of the atoms in current humans may have come from recycled humans (i.e. the return of nutrients to the soil through decomposition) most of the time we don’t generally “recycle” humans. We put them in sealed boxes in burial grounds off-limits to agriculture where the nutrients can not be returned to the system. Cremation adds to the carbon in the air.

We waste and misuse so many resources. As consumers, we salve our conscious with the catch-cry, reduce-reuse-recycle, but that is unlikely to be enough to stop or reverse climate change.

Is it time to stop being humans who recycle to humans who are recycled?

Is it time to start thinking about burial practices so the nutrients in humans are available for other uses? I’m of course not the only one thinking about this sort of thing; burial trees pods have been mooted for a while.

It’s all sounding like Soylent Green may not be such a bad idea after all! By the way, that movie, where people were recycled to make food for other humans was set in 2022.

I also believe that those of us in developed economies, who use a lot of resources, have a moral imperative to reduce the number of children we have. We need to seriously consider limiting our population through natural attrition so that some of the atoms can be returned to make other things.

Instead of “one [child] for mum, one for dad and one for the country” how about just one for the planet?

[1] https://www.ecology.com/population-estimates-year-2050/