Evidence acidic pollution is damaging ancient rock art
Research is likely to damage the old domestic rock art, which is nominated as the World Heritage site of industrial pollution.
Murujuga in Western Australia includes a collection of the world’s largest, most intense and most various rock art engravings, and some are estimated to be greater than 50,000 years.
The peninsula in the northwest WA near Karratha is home to two gas plants, fertilizer plants and iron ore and salt export facilities.
The industrial emissions they produced caused lower pH and higher acid levels on local rainwater and rock surfaces.
A accelerated decomposition experiment, which simulates six -year exposure to rainwater with various acidity levels, is likely to disrupt the outer layer of the rocks on which petroglips are already engraved.
“The rock varnish on the rocks carrying petroglif from Murujuga is likely affected by local industrial pollution, the decomposition rates have already accelerated due to the low pH of the rain water,” Bonn University study in question.
“Furthermore, if the pH continues to decrease, the decomposition rates are more likely to increase, because the dissolution rates of the primary phases of the varnish tend to increase at lower pH values.
“The most important finding was the significant increase in these dissolution rates at pH <5."
Previous reports show that acid rain occurs under 5.6 with an average of 4.6 pH in Murujuga, and the environment has become more acidic over time.
Environmental Minister Murray Watt announced on Wednesday that he will travel to the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization center in France in order to list Murujuga’s World Heritage Site.
The site was put forward to UNESCO in 2023, but Australia’s application was sent back in May.
The proposed state and federal governments deal with WoodSide’s nearby acid emissions, including the burup gas hub.
Mr. Watt recently gave temporary approval to continue to operate until 2070 for a Woodside project on the peninsula.
Raelene Cooper, a Mardathoonera woman and Murujuga traditional detention officer, said the work in Paris at the UNESCO meeting shows how danger the rock art is.
On Thursday, “German researchers found that pH values below five mean increased decomposition and erosion rate, including the increasing porosity of rocks and the deterioration of the surface layer of the rocks,” he said.
Murujuga and the surrounding islands are believed to contain more than one million petroglififs.
They describe animals, plants and human figures and can be seen due to the color and contrast between the brighted shell lying under the latter and the brighted shell lying under the host rocks.
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