How Labor’s North West Shelf approval further endangers Murujuga’s 50,000-year-old rock art | Benjamin Smith and John Black

S.Thursday, the new Minister of Environment, Murray Watt, He agreed to extend For the northwestern natural gas project. The gas factory will work in Corata, West Australia, until 2070.

This expansion – and the pollution that will be launched – has led to a recommendation from the International Council for Antiquities and sites UNESCO’s decision postpone In the World Heritage List of Rocking Art near Murujuga.

Two recommendations are before re -renewal of the site to ensure the total removal of acidic emissions “and” prevent any other industrial development adjacent to the cultural landscapes in and inside Muruja. “

Murujuga has more than a million patels, some of which are up to 50,000 years.

It has the oldest pictures of the human face in the world and records the traditions and traditions of the Australian indigenous population since the first human settlement of this continent. It is remarkably beautiful and is of tremendous cultural and spiritual importance for traditional owners.

Despite the tremendous importance of the site, a large industrial area was built in its center.

Fears about the Morogoga Rock Technical Report

Last week, the Western Australia government has long issued a long time Rock Murujuga Art Monitoring Program The Second Year. This report examines the impact of industrial pollution on one of the most important locations of rock art in the world.

We have made our independent project on the impact of industrial emissions on Murujuga since 2018. Many of our findings support the details in this report, but the government Summary of the report and The subsequent political comment Reduces the continuous effects of acid emissions from industry on the unique rock art.

The most important results are the results of the wireless room. These all kinds of rocks from Murujuga were exposed to the air pollutants released by the industry. The results showed that all of them deteriorated, even with relatively low doses of sulfur dioxide (so₂) and nitrogen dioxide (No₂).

The very important result is that “there is statistically significant evidence of a porous height of Granoviri rocky surfaces.” This focuses on the industrial scratching in Morogga. The report admits that industrial pollution is the most likely cause.

This decomposition and high rock porridge endangered the survival of the risk rocks.

In our research team, Golaham Newman, who will be published a doctoral thesis at Bonn University, Germany, is still the effects of industrial pollution on Moroguja rocks.

He used actual samples from the Gabbro and Granophyre rock collected from Murujuga and the simulation of six years of wavy under current pollution conditions. It was found high porosity in both rock surfaces. He also collected the remains to understand the eroded rock and how.

It was found that there is a significant deterioration of the Bernisite (manganese) and jauslite (clay) from the surface. The red/dark brown surface of the rock has become porous and began to collapse.

His work confirms that industrial emissions are the reason for the high porosity in the report. His work shows the seriousness of the porous: It is a process of a process that causes rapid disintegration of the rock surface.

The damage is continuing

With the Murujuga Rock Art report, which shows evidence of the damage to the art of pollution, the state government chose to emphasize Summary of the report The collapsed power plant from the seventies and eighties of the last century was likely to be the perpetrator.

The report data indicates that the power plant produced about 3,600 tons of NO₂ a year and less than 400 tons of So₂ per year. The current industry in the direct field It produces more than 13,000 tons of NO₂ per year and more than 6500 tons of So₂.

If the old electricity generation plant inflicts art, then contemporary industrial emissions will destroy the art of rock at least five times faster.

Newman also obtained access to a piece of rocks collected by the archaeological scientist Robert Bednarik in 1994, and was stored in his office in Melbourne over the past thirty years.

The area in which this rock came from now has a high porous, but the Bendarik Rock does not show any signs. This means that the largest part of the industrial damage is likely to be more modern than 1994 – and it is continuing.

Loss of 50,000 years of culture

The art of rocks were formed by engraving in the red/thin black/outer black surface of the rocks, called the rock varnish, and exposed the gray blue rocks under it.

This rock varnish was made in a process It included procedures From specialized microbes called blue bacteria. They focus on manganese and iron from the environment to form an external sheath to protect themselves from the harsh desert environment.

The rock varnish is formed at an incredibly slow rate: 1 to 10 microns in 1000 years (human hair is about 100 microns).

These organisms can only flourish when the acidity of the surface of the rocks Near the neutral (pH 6.5-7). Their Mengeneys are decisive for the safety of the rock varnish, as it links it together and carries it on the basic rock.

If you lose manganese, you will lose the rock varnish and rock art.

Newman found the manganese ratio in the Bednarik rock sample by 18.4 % by weight. In the samples collected in the same area in 2021, the manganese content decreased to 9.6 %. The depth of varnish was reduced and the varnish layer was full of holes in which manganese deteriorated.

The damage to the industry over 26 years was clearly clear.

Increased porosity reduces the density of the rock varnish layer and ultimately deteriorating it. There is also the lack of blue bacteria near industrial sites, but not in more distant locations, indicating that industrial emissions eliminate the microbes that make up the varnish.

Where is the next?

Industrial pollution has deteriorated the art of rocks and will continue to do so until the levels of industrial pollution in Morogua are reduced to zero.

There are two well -known ways to eliminate NO₂ emissions. Uses one My selective is a motivational decrease To convert no₂ to nitrogen and water. The second method is to replace all the production of gas burning heat operations with electricity.

The use of such technologies should constitute part of the conditions for ministerial approval to extend the northwestern shelf.

• This article was originally published in the conversation. Benjamin Smith is a professor of archeology (global rock world) at the College of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia. John Black, Assistant Professor of Fakhri at the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Sydney