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GEO 106: Environmental Geology

GEO 106: Environmental Geology. Brian McAninch. Topics to be covered:. Basic building blocks of geology & the environment Minerals and their chemistry Rocks and the rock cycle How the Earth works Plate tectonics The scientific method Hazards of the environment

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GEO 106: Environmental Geology

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  1. GEO 106: Environmental Geology Brian McAninch

  2. Topics to be covered: • Basic building blocks of geology & the environment • Minerals and their chemistry • Rocks and the rock cycle • How the Earth works • Plate tectonics • The scientific method • Hazards of the environment • Earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding, landslides, and hurricanes • Our impact on the environment • On soil, water resources, and climate

  3. What is the most valuable material that we mine on Earth? Mineral Resources

  4. Mining for energy resources How do we mine For coal? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

  5. Hazardous minerals What is this magnified mineral?

  6. Earthquake damage in California

  7. Landers (1992) Earthquake in SoCal (southern California)

  8. Volcanic eruptions

  9. Mount St. Helens

  10. Flooding on the Mississippi What’s the feature cutting across the bottom half of the picture?

  11. Confluence of the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers

  12. Same confluence at the height of the 1993 flooding of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers

  13. Coastal erosion

  14. San Andreas Fault Los Angeles Orange County Combinations of natural and man-made disasters

  15. Our impact on the environment: Soil Erosion

  16. Water Resources: • water supply • water pollution

  17. Temperature (o Celsius) Global Warming The famous ‘hockey stick’ graph

  18. What can we do about these hazards and impacts on the environment by humans? Plan ahead. EQ Hazard map for Portland Oregon

  19. Flood hazard Planning Map

  20. Now for some examples • Cycles and systems • What is a system? • What are open & closed systems? • What are some examples? • What is environmental unity? • Population growth • What is linear & exponential growth? • What does sustainable mean? • Carrying capacity? • Human population growth • How many humans will there be in 40 years?

  21. Earth systems

  22. Exponential versus Linear Growth

  23. Is the growing human population resulting in more disasters? What is causing this increase in the cost of natural disasters? In the U.S.

  24. Is this due to an increase in the number of disasters? No.

  25. So how many people will there be in the future? Is this the major environmental concern for Earth?

  26. UN estimates for human population growth Current estimate (2007) is for the peak to be approximately 9.2 billion in 2050, with the other estimates at 12, 10.8, and 7.9 billion.

  27. And UN estimates for human population growth into the future

  28. So why does the exponential growth of human slow and then peak?

  29. China 1950-2000 From: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis www.iiasa.ac.at Example of how short-term famine/death do not result in significant decrease in population

  30. Population projections from BBC News website (2005)

  31. Rural versus Urban Population Current data from U.N. Dept of Economic & Social Affairs, Population Division (2007)

  32. Projected Chinese population (in grey) and birthrates (in red). Note the substantial decline in birthrates (starting ~1970) resulting in the projected decline in population beginning around 2010-2020. From: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis www.iiasa.ac.at

  33. Projected population curves for China and India These are somewhat Inaccurate as are from 1996 China India From: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis www.iiasa.ac.at

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