Peter MountAs the UK shut down it's final Coal burning power station yesterday, I see that XKCD celebrated it with a calculation.
So we burned about 3 inches in depth of the UK's surface between 1853 and 2024 😲
Chris Young@peter "The Watership Down rabbits removed an additional 0.1 nanometers constructing their warren, although that was mostly soil. British rabbits have historically mined very little coal; the sole rabbit-run coal plant was shut down in the 1990s."
Chloé Raccoon@confusedbunny @peter @dh Of course, we don't know what the rabbits who dug out the warren did, Hazel, etc, found the warren intact but deserted...
Darkhorse WinterWolf 🇪🇺@chloeraccoon @confusedbunny @peter Ah, are you suggesting that they might have been cutting peat to use as a fuel, perhaps?
RobertJacksonSo, I wonder what depth of wood and leaves and dead prehistoric animals compressed down to 3 inches over the millennia?
Maybe a few feet?
UkeleleEric@peter yeah, but it wasn't the top 3 inches, though subsidence in some areas would have made the ground level drop.
Max@peter due to coal mining, the surface of the Ruhr Region in Western Germany has sunken by up to 24 m.
@limpr I presume that's an open cast mine?
@peter no, it was an area with lots of deep underground mines
https://www.lwl.org/westfalen-regional-download/Abbildungen_Buch/091n_Abb_1_BU.jpg
https://www.lwl.org/westfalen-regional-download/Abbildungen_Buch/091n_Abb_1_BU.jpg
@limpr ah, major subsidence, that happens here a lot but not too that extent
apm77@peter Meanwhile, plate tectonics causes everything to zoom by sideways at about fifty times that rate.
Peter Bindels@peter 3 inches of the whole country ... or about equal to the energy contained in 6.3 40ft containers of uranium-235.
Cegorach
hicksy2@drazraeltod @peter what would the UK be burning coal for? Domestic heating? Cottage industry? Last blast furnace is due to close soon as well. Or are you talking about coal burnt overseas for products exported to the UK?
@drazraeltod @peter Coal for domestic heating is illegal now, apparently.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/selling-coal-for-domestic-use-in-england
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/selling-coal-for-domestic-use-in-england
@hicksy2 @drazraeltod I thought it was
Steve Hill 🏴🇪🇺@hicksy2 @drazraeltod @peter Note: that only applies to England, not the whole of the UK, and you can still use anthracite for domestic heating, just not the low quality crap.
@steve @drazraeltod @peter interesting. Welsh anthracite also looks competitive with gas in terms of cost/kWh for domestic heating.
@hicksy2 @drazraeltod @peter I would imagine thata coal burner is way less efficient than a modern gas boiler though
@drazraeltod @hicksy2 Coal for domestic heating has long gong, might be the odd one bust most are on other fuels
@hicksy2 @drazraeltod only the coal used by the uk from when we started until the last coal power plant shut down
@hicksy2 @drazraeltod this is for general electricity generation.
so as of yesterday theres no coal plant using that fuel.
The last delivery via rail wa back in august (I think)
@drazraeltod @peter basically leaving heritage railways and Fred Dibnah types with steam engines
@drazraeltod @hicksy2 the amount of coal used by heritage rail is so tiny it's irreverent.
@peter or 75mm in civilised measurements
joe@peter now add a thick layer of oil and liquid gas.