On the 14th November 2022, flash flooding hit the small town of Molong in CentralWest NSW.

A few tens of km down the road, some of the caves at Wellington were already flooded due to the La NIna rains.

A fast moving flood pulse went down the Bell River, with the resulting increase in water pressure raising water levels in the caves even more (look for the water line in the photo).

The waters have receded and this week I got to go back and collect all the research equipment in the cave and put it back in place.

I was not sure what to expect, but all loggers were recovered (see photo) and only two of twenty loggers were destroyed.

Success! The logger network has been replaced, the data interpreted and knowledge exchanged with the caves team.

The loggers are possibly the longest running continuous record of rainfall recharge to groundwater in the world (started 2010, with small data gaps due to groundwater flooding in 2011, 2016 and 2022/3). And the data is about to be investigated by our #UNSW #GEOS2291 Earth's Systems ad Sustainability students.

#climate #groundwater #hydrology #caves #water #science #environment #earthscience

This week our #UNSW Earth's Systems & Sustainability students have been collecting air samples from around #Sydney. I offered to collect some too, and bags of air are enjoying the train commute from the New South Wales Central Coast.

The samples will be analysed by the students for the greenhouse gas methane. Using isotope analyses, they will identify the sources of the methane in Sydney's air. Will it be leaky city gas infrastructure? Or plumes from industry? Or clean air from offshore?

#environment #atmosphericscience #environmentalscience #earthscience #csg #methane #climatechange #GEOS2291 #greenhousegas #isotopes

The #UNSW #earthscience teaching lab is all set up for start of term.

We have a new 'cave animal' poster on display for 2023 - this year it is the glow worm. Thanks to the 'Australian Cave Animal of the Year'. We have hundreds of free stickers for the students.

And an isotope analyser is analysing the #carbondioxide and #methane of the air in the lab. In a couple of weeks, students will be collecting air quality data from all over #sydney for their project.

#academia #scicomm #envionment #geology #atmosphericscience #GEOS2291 #GEOS1211 #picarro