Human Impact on the Lithosphere Urbanization Destroying natural

Human Impact on the Lithosphere

Urbanization • Destroying natural areas can reduce the beauty of an area and have a potential economic impact. • Rapid development can result in very high levels of erosion and sedimentation in river channels. • Pollution of soils is possible by leaking gas tanks and other chemicals.

Deforestation • Cutting down all the trees in an area loosens the soil and makes it very easy for extreme erosion to occur. • One solution is replanting and a system of harvesting that thins out the area.

Agriculture • Agriculture takes space. • Use of chemical pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers can contaminate soil and affect soil fertility. • Organic fertilizers are better. • Planting the same crop over and over can strip vital minerals out of the soil. • Crop rotation can help.

Overgrazing • Overgrazing is the removal of excessive amounts of plant growth by animals in one area. This accelerates erosion and strips away topsoil, resulting in no plants able to grow. • It is best to rotate animals among pastures.

Harvesting Peat • Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation. Eventually, peat can turn into coal and be burned for fuel. • Advantages • low sulphur content • minimal mercury content • low ash content energy • values equivalent to coal, less expensive than oil and natural gas and competitive with other biofuels • minor engineering retrofit needed when substituted for, or blended with, coal • Since peat forms nearer to the surface, it requires less digging.

Mining Mountaintop Removal: entire mountaintops are blasted off in the Appalachian Mountains • Causes deforestation and mudslides • Pollutes the waterways

Mining Strip Mining • Underground mining requires digging out large areas, increasing the risk for sinkholes and cave ins. • Strip mining destroys the environment. • Mine operators must reclaim the land after mining is finished.

Uranium and Plutonium • Open pit mining is used where deposits are close to the surface and underground mining is used for deep deposits, typically greater than 120 m deep. • Nuclear reactors use mined Uranium to convert to Plutonium through fission (splitting of atoms).

Drilling for Oil and Natural Gas • Oil and Natural Gas are nonrenewable resources. • Drilling can cause the lithosphere to be disturbed and can cause earthquakes. • Soil and groundwater can also be contaminated. • Fracking is a hot political topic.

Human Activity and the Coast • As more and more people retire, there is more development on our coast. • Removal of vegetation at the coast can cause serious erosion. • Man made erosion control, like sandbags, can make erosion worse downshore. • Erosion causes houses to be condemned and potentially fall into the ocean.

Human Activities and Mountainsides • Blasting away rock to build roads • Erosion by building houses and other buildings • Remove tops of mountains for mining • Logging forests