Acid Mine Drainage Painting
Along with CO2 emissions, local health hazards, and environmental pollution, coal mining creates acid mine drainage, or AMD. AMD is the sludge of iron and sulfuric acid that mining releases into nearby waterways.
Sulfides are initially contained in rocks within the mine but start to disintegrate once exposed to oxygen and water via coal mining. These sulfides break apart into sulfuric acid and iron, turning the water acidic and yellow-orange. Although AMD starts as orange, once freeze-dried, it becomes light brown. The addition of linseed oil turns it a far darker, richer brown. The AMD in this painting is the brown paint of the illustrations, while the background is splashed with watercolor.
AMD collected from Silver Creek Acid Mine Drainage remediation site in Southeast Pennsylvania. Paint-making instruction and tips: Mishelley Low. Video and paint made by Rowan Killina.
Process
1. Collect AMD samples from acid mine drainage remediation site.
2. Separate sludge into individual vials.
3. Freeze dry the contents of each vial.
4. Grind larger chunks with a ball miller to turn into a fine powder.
5. Mix with linseed oil, using a palette knife to combine the AMD powder and oil.
6. On a panel of frosted glass, mull paint by grating a glass muller in circles over the AMD.
7. Scrape paint off the glass and into a clean vial.
PAINTING
"Onward" by Rowan Killina.
Features
The following list includes the plant or animal featured, the approximate dates during which they lived, and what they represent in terms of the larger biological timeline of the earth through different stages of geologic time.
Ediacaran Biota: squishy, mop-shaped MULTICELLULAR LIFE exists on the ocean floor (635-538 mya)
Trilobite: the rise of hard-shelled organisms (521 mya)
Cooksonia: earliest land plants (~470 mya)
Carboniferous snails.
Glanosuchus: earliest therapsids, aka the ancestors of mammals (~272 mya)
Archaeopteryx: first birds, aka dinosaurs with feathers (160 mya)
Stegosaurus: a chunky dinosaur.* (155-145 mya)
* NOTE: Not all the dinosaurs lived at the same time! They had vastly different temporal ranges. The first dinosaurs entered the fossil record at 243 mya; not until 68-66 mya does the T-rex or triceratops come into the picture!
Purgatorius: first primates, aka ancestors to chimps and humans (66 mya)
Woolly Mammoth: Last Ice Age, human civilization continues on.** (31,000-16,000 years ago)
**NOTE: The first recorded Homo sapiens skull from is 233,000 years ago.
In the scale of geologic time, human history is awe-strikingly minuscule. However, through coal mining and fracking for oil, we have irreversibly altered the earth's geologic structure. Now nature depends, perhaps ironically, on us to stop the harmful effects of energy generation and put the planet first. Fossil fuels industries must be restrained from treating our planet with so little consideration for the earth and the people who inhabit it.
Humanity may be a brief part of history, and we as individuals may not be able to drastically halt the climate crisis, but we have great impact through that which we create. Exploring the geology of coal mining and acid mine drainage through the lens of biology and art gave me a deeper appreciation for the length and breadth of earth's history.
Besides, we removed toxic AMD sludge from the water and turned it into something beautiful. Art cannot suck up excess CO2 from the atmosphere, but it can heal. It can inspire. It can cling to the mind. One day you're mulling over the sheer vastitude of geologic time and the next you're mulling in a laboratory. As for the rest of Pennsylvania's AMD, it still sits in the water. But now through art, the impact of sampling it can be shared on a wider scale.
This page has paths:
- Coal Geological Materials Selby Hearth