Did you know?

[red750]

That's right. I was going to say this is probably the reason we have intermittent episodes of earth tremors.

[onetrack]

Yes, the pressure on the Australian continent as it's pushed NE is the reason we have regular earth tremors and earthquakes. The Australian continent is the fastest-moving continent on the Earth.

 

I reckon we're about due to have another decent earthquake, it's been a long time since we've had a substantial one, they seem to come about every 50-60 years.

 

The Meckering earthquake here in the West in 1968 was a pearler, it would've caused quite a few deaths and a lot more destruction if it had occurred in a more densely populated area.

 

I was driving a dozer when it hit, so I didn't feel a thing. But the brother, who was canvassing for work nearby, came back to my damsinking job just before midday (the earthquake happened just before 11:00AM), and he said he pulled into a farmhouse, and as he arrived, the water tanks on their high stands were wobbling from side to side!

 

Locally, there were reports of concrete water tanks with open tops, that had lost sizeable amounts of water, as it sloshed over the sides of the tanks under the shaking.

 

https://www.ga.gov.au/education/natural-hazards/earthquake

[old man emu]

We were lead to believe that that this is the most stable continent, and being well within its tectonic plate it is not undergoing the mountain building activity associated with collisions between plates. However, that was not always the case and the eastern side of the continent is riddled with ancient faults that have the potential to become active.

[old man emu]

In another thread I wrote about a DIY solution that could be used to remove rust from ferrous metal objects. It involved a chemical reaction in which rust, the red oxide of iron Fe2O3 is converted to  magnetite (Fe3O4), the black oxide of iron. In colloquial use, thin coatings of black oxide are often termed 'gun bluing'.  Black oxide provides minimal protection against corrosion, unless also treated with a water-displacing oil to reduce wetting and galvanic action.

[willedoo]

That must be what those water based rust converters do. They leave a black coating which they say can also act as a primer. It's good stuff, just a pity it's so expensive.

[old man emu]

24 minutes ago, willedoo said:

It's good stuff, just a pity it's so expensive.

Yeah, Evaporust is a good product, but it is expensive simply due to the overheads involved in making and marketing. The DYI stuff is just as effective, but much cheaper to produce in small quantities, since a DIYer doesn't include labour costs and all the other overheads a commercial manufacturer has to include.

 

31 minutes ago, willedoo said:

They leave a black coating which they say can also act as a primer.

That black coating is magnetite (Fe3O4). It is adversely affected by water. If you watch videos where they restore rusty stuff, you will see that they soak the blued materials in oil to protect the bluing. Often resorers will nickel plate metal parts after the oil bath treatment. (I think that's correct, without my having to go back and watch such videos to confirm.)