The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
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William Atkins
Monday, 21 January 2008 21:08
Corr stated, “The discovery of a ‘subglacial’ volcanic eruption from beneath the Antarctic ice sheet is unique in itself. But our techniques also allow us to put a date on the eruption, determine how powerful it was and map out the area where ash fell. We believe this was the biggest eruption in Antarctica during the last 10,000 years. It blew a substantial hole in the ice sheet, and generated a plume of ash and gas that rose around 12 km into air.” [from press release of BAS]
They flew over the Hudson Mountains, the dividing line between the East Antarctic ice sheet and the West Antarctic ice sheet. While on their journey they detected (with the use of their radar system) a debris field that was about 12,300 square miles (23,000 square kilometers) in area and approximately 330 to 2,300 feet (100 to 700 meters) beneath the ice surface. It is described as an area larger than the country of Wales.
Specifically, the Hudson Mountains are positioned above the Antarctic ice sheet in west Ellsworth Land, just east of Cranton Bay and Pine Island Bay. North of the mountains is Cosgrove Ice Shelf and south of their position is Pine Island Blacier.
Corr and Vaughan state that the subglacial volcano lies on a tectonic rift beneath the icy surface of Antarctica. They think the volcano is about 330 feet (100 meters) under the surface of the ice and is about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) in height from its base.
The two researchers contend that the volcano violently erupted around 2,000 years ago and blew a large hole through the ice sheet. The force of its eruption threw a plume of debris (ash, dust, and other materials) into the atmosphere—they think it went about 7.5 miles, or 12 kilometers high—which returned to Earth as a large elliptical-shaped layer of debris still detectable today—as a suspension within the ice—with their powerful radar instruments.
They state that the thinnest point of the layer—which is located at the edges of the layer—is only 0.012 inches (0.3 millimeters) thick.
Additional information on their discovery, along with the press release from the British Antarctic Survey, is found on the next page. Please read on.
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