Minerals used in buildings

The due date on our papers are closing in fast so I decided to get going on my research for my paper on how the use of minerals in our everyday lifes affect society.  First, I looked into which minerals where used for each aspect of building a house for example.  Do we take for granite how much nature gives to us just to put a roof over our head?

The first housing feature I researched for buildings was concrete.  There are three basic minerals in concrete. These three are: calcite, gypsum, and illite.  These together make concrete easy to form when wet, quick to settle or harden, and strong and impermeable when set. 

Another material was bricks, which are simply enough made from clay, which is a sedimentary rock made up of superfine materials. When the clay is fired it makes a rigid/strong material that is impermeable and makes for a good insulator. 

Plasterboard is made from gypsum which is also very easy to form when wet just like cement. 

To make nuts, bolts, and screws, the minerals geothite, magnetite, and sphalerite are used.  These three mixed makes for strong, rigid, hard, and rustproof materials.  Plus, we all know that copper makes up for good wiring and plumbing materials.

Exam 1 review

For this post I will mention some of the problems that were presented in the context of exam number one.  I will try to explain which ones I missed or had trouble with and what the correct answer of each is.

I missed question number two, which stated that the distribution of natural resources is influenced by all of the above which were type of rocks, age of rocks, and way in which rocks formed. 

Question ten proposed a reference to carbon 14.  It asked what the 14 refers to in C14, which is an isotope of carbon that is often used to determine the absolute age of organic materials up to 70,000 years.  I answered wrong by putting A. the number of electrons in this carbon isotope.  However, the correct answer turned out to be the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of this isotope.  As we recall from class, we learned that a change in electrons is actually an ion, not an isotope, so therefore my answer couldnt be correct.  We also learned that the change in nutrons is an isotope and the change in protons creates a new element.   In carbon 14, the number of protons doesnt change as it remains constant at 6, however the amount of neutrons jumps from 6 to 8 and allows us to tell how much carbon has decayed over time to allow us to determine its age based on its half life. 

Question twelve allowed me to see that an example of a single chain silicate is pyroxene.  I thought the answer would be mica because they cleave in sheets, but if they were single chains than they wouldnt be stacked together. 

I also learned from question number 16 that divergent and transform boundaries aren’t a very logical answer to the question “name two forces that are responsible for the movement of tectonic plates”.  Through reading back over the material, I found that more acceptable answers might include convection and conduction.  These both lead to the uprising of heat or magma that forces pressure onto plates therefore causing movement.  This is especially true of divergent boundaries.  Cooling will sink rock because it will become more dense, and heating will liquidify the rock and force the less dense liquid to the surface and will then push the two plates apart. 

Question 18 suggested that the idea of uniformity came from James Hutton and was the idea that Earth was a superorganism with a limitless lifespan. 

the last part I want to review is five of the basic principles for determining relative age of rocks: the principle of origional horizontality(sedimentary material was set down horizontally origionaly), cross cutting relations- says that a fault or any type of intrusion is younger than the rock it goes through, super position- bottom layer is the oldest and top is youngest, principle of inclusion-older rock parts can be found in younger rocks, and the principle of faunal succession-if two rocks contain the same fossils from relative geolical time period, then the rocks must be the same age.

Bioremdiation

As chemicals and toxins have been increasingly more popular with time, the subject of soil contamination has become more and more important. Today, humans have to be prepared and organized in a case if a major toxic or chemical spill were to occur. Thus, research in bioremediation is becoming more and more common. Using natural bacteria and/or other organisms to “eat away” at the toxic material, is a natural and very useful method. Just like the Exxon oil spill scientists used bacteria that ate away at the carbon in the oil, to reduce the overall affect to the environment. Research in this subject could save many species and and prevent keystone habitats from anthropogenic destruction. We all learned in class that soil can absorb, filter, and buffer all kinds of liquids. Whether it be rain or chemicals from a non-point pollution source, soil has the ability to retain and/or filter chemicals from getting into waterways or even groundwater sources.

There are also other uses of bioremediaton, like, the use of genetic engineering to create organisms specifically designed for bioremediation has great potential. The bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans (the most radioresistant organism known) has been modified to consume and digest toluene and ionic mercury from highly radioactive nuclear waste. There are some plants that naturally buffer the chemicals and the roots actually clean the contaminate. Mycoremediation is the use of fungi to return a contaminated environment to a less contaminated one. Overall there are many different uses and methods of bioremediation that are all very useful and environmentally friendly. Research in this subject is important for the benefit of comfortable living for multiple species, including ourselves.

Contamination of soil by crude oil occurs around the world because of equipment failure, natural disasters, deliberate acts, and human error. However, conventional approaches to clean-up come with additional environmental costs. Detergents, for instance, become pollutants themselves and can persist in the environment long after any remediation exercise is complete. A more environmentally friendly approach is to bioremediation, which uses natural or engineered microbes that can metabolize the organic components of crude oil. Stimulating such microbial degradation in contaminated soil often involves the use of expensive fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus, and again may come with an additional environmental price tag despite the bio label. Many studies have been researched and preformed, when looking around on the internet I found an article on Science Daily actually says that Chicken Manure, yes CHICKEN MANURE, has the ability to biodegrade crude oil in contaminated soil. Research in China, “the team added chicken manure to soil contaminated with 10 percent volume to weight of crude to soil. They found that the almost 75% of the oil was broken down in soil with the fowl additive after about two weeks. Whereas additive-free soil was naturally remediated to just over 50%.”

Tallest Mountains

     An orogeny is a mountain forming event that results in the formation of a mountain range. The basic steps of an orogeny are a continental plate colliding with an oceanic plate and causing uplift in the landscape. Eventually, after thousands of years, the continental plate begins to collide with another continental plate and the uplift becomes a little bit more drastic. This process continues for thousands of years and in some cases is still continuing, but this tectonic activity which is in line with the theory of plate tectonics is what causes mountains to form. There are some famous mountains out there but each continent has its own range, tallest mountain, and orogeny to claim. Highest Mountain in Asia: Mount Everest. Its summit is 29, 035 ft. above sea level and it is located near the border of Nepal and China. It formed 60 million years ago when the Indian plate collided with what is now the Asia plate. Highest Mountain in North America: Mount McKinley. Its summit is 20, 320 feet above sea level. It is located in the Unites States in the state of Alaska. If dates back 60 million years also. Highest Mountain in South America: Mount Aconcagua. Its summit is 22, 834 feet above sea level. It is located in Argentina. Its formation dates back to Precambrian times. Highest Mountain in Australia: Mount Kosciuszcko. Its summit is 7, 310 feet above sea level. It is located in New South Wales. Highest Mountain in Antarctica: Vinson Massif. Its summit is 16, 066 feet above sea level. Highest Mountain in Europe: Mount Elbrus. Its summit is 18, 510 feet above sea level. It is located in Russia. Highest Mountain in Africa: Mount Kilimanjaro. Its summit is 19, 340 feet above sea level and it is located in Tanzania. Each of these mountains are continually growing and are continually being worn away by the elements.

Reflection of the Semester

           Out of everything that has been studied there are a few subjects that can be classified as my favorite or the ones that I found the most interesting. The first which I wrote both my research paper and a blog on is the New Madrid Fault and the fact that a major earthquake could be looming in the distance.

            The earthquake of 1811, or should I say the many earthquakes that struck the area that December, left considerable damage to the land and its people. There was noticeable topographic change and it was documented that large chunks of land were displaced. Not many people lived in this area during this time so the loss of life was minimized but the thought of this happening now is terrifying. The area is highly populated and not only are the people not as aware about their living situation as they should be, the building structure codes are not where they should be. The necessary precautions that need to be taking are fascinated and it is interesting to see what this area does.

            Another topic that I was more interested in than I thought I would be in North Carolina Geology. When we first started talking about the different regions, Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and Coastal, I felt as if I was back in every science class I had ever taken in the North Carolina Public School System. But as we continued with the material and learned the different geologic belts, or areas with similar geological compositions, I was intrigued with the area that I live in. I live in the Kings Mountain Belt which is made up of metamorphic materials and which contains a very important mineral, Kyanite.

            In class we talked about how in the 1990s a company wanted to do mountain top removal mining of Crowder’s Mountain to retrieve the Kyanite. Luckily, this was stopped when Crowder’s Mountain State Park was started. It is crazy to think that the Mountain that sits in my backyard could look completely different and that my area could be dealing with the effects of mining, like contaminated water.

            I have always had an interest in science, especially environmental science, but I never really considered geology or its role in everything. Looking at things from a geological perspective affects the way I think about any science in the end and is something that should be considered. Although I may not have enjoyed every minute of the class (I am now just writing twelve blogs) it will help me in the long run as I pursue not only a science degree but a career in science as well.

New Madrid Hazards

The following is a summary of my research paper written for Environment 102.

     For the majority of society the word earthquake brings a variety of images to mind such as skyscrapers toppling over and buildings cracking or the earth splitting in two and swallowing Ms. Holloway’s Chihuahua whole either way these events seem to always happen on the west coast (where consequently California will break off at the state border and float out into the middle of the Pacific). What some people do not realize is that a fault line responsible for one of the most devastating earthquakes in United States history is located east of the Rocky Mountains in the Mississippi Valley.     

     Despite the common stereotype of an earth splitting natural disaster, earthquakes are generally the exact opposite. Earthquakes are the result of tectonic pressure beneath the earth’s crust. This pressure builds and the rocks bend and strain to accommodate the force but eventually it is too much and the rock slips and shifts releasing the pressure and causing an earthquake. This occurs around convergent boundaries, where two tectonic plates are colliding, and transform boundaries, where two tectonic plates are moving past one another. Earthquakes can also happen at divergent boundaries where plates are being pushed apart, but this generally only occurs in relation to sea floor spreading. All of these are inter plate earthquakes, ones that occur at plate boundaries, within areas that are known to have high seismic activity and expect as much. The New Madrid Fault is an ancient fault line that never materialized due to tectonic changes millions of years ago. This fault is very deep and the earthquakes are a result of the pressure this underdeveloped fault experiences at these depths. The New Madrid Fault causes intra plate earthquakes meaning they happen in the middle of a plate in areas that may not be properly prepared and educated in dealing with major earthquakes.

            This is the case for most cities located near the New Madrid Fault. Although this fault is not widely known it has been around and has been producing notable seismic activity for centuries. This fault system stretches 120 miles beginning in Charleston, Missouri and ending in Marked Tree, Arkansas. It crosses the Mississippi River three times and the Ohio River twice and is responsible for over 200 seismic events each year The fault follows a pattern with a 4.0 or more quake every 18 months and a 5.0 or more quake once a decade. The New Madrid area does not experience as many tremors as the west coast but when there is any activity at all there is more damage. This is due to the different geological compositions of the two areas. Material amplification is increased shaking of sediment due to its composition and density. It means that waves from earthquakes, which actually cause the damage, move faster and are amplified when they move through unconsolidated material as opposed to tightly packed material.

Weathering: A Case Study

     Geological weathering occurs many ways. The main causes of weathering are water and wind. Water consistently running over a rock will eventually smooth that rock and wash away all of its rough spots. Wind blowing small particles like sand against another rock formation constantly will eventually lead to the breakdown of the rock into smaller particles that will continue this process elsewhere. Both of these contribute to a type of weathering, erosion that plagues coastlines, mountains, and highway planning agencies alike.

            We witnessed weathering locally. The formation of South Mountain, a lone mountain, is due to weathering away of materials that are more resistant. We could see the process occurring when our class took a trip to hike at South Mountain. There were visible signs where they stream was slowly wearing away the rock and there was evidence of it. Large boulders could be found at the bottom of the mountain from where the rock had weakened and the boulders had broken away.

            Another example of erosion and weathering is the continuous battle between the elements and tectonic plates of the Alps. An orogeny is a mountain forming event which is most commonly a continental plate colliding with an oceanic plate causing uplift in the landscape. Eventually the continental plate collides with another continental plate causing even more uplift. This process occurs over thousands of years but the end result is a mountain range. So in the Alps this process is constantly occurring so the mountains are growing every year. The ironic part is the fact that they are shrinking just as much.

            The actual formation of the Alps between what is now the European plate and the African plate began 55 million years ago. Due to the placement of the plates today there is still a pressure forcing the two areas together so this process is still occurring today. Yet the Alps suffer heavy weathering every year from every angle.

     Constant wind gusts and the flow of water are slowly wearing not only the tops of the mountains but the sides as well. But this does not happen to all mountain ranges. Some ranges such as the Himalayans are not stuck in this limbo but continue to rise each year. This is because the climate differences. For some reason the Alps are exposed to heavier weathering than other mountain ranges therefore they do not rise as steeply as them. Also, the continuation of the orogeny is slowly dying due to a shifting in the plates.

     So it is possible to say that that rate of growth is equal to the rate of disappearance because as these particles are worn away and carried down the mountains there is an upwelling of fresh land from beneath the earth’s crust. This is an ongoing process that ensures that the Alps will be around for a while.

Volcanic Winter

     There are many hazards associated with Volcanoes, but they are not the stereotypical ones that everyone thinks of. People are rarely incinerated by giant waves of lava but a pyroclastic flow, how gas and debris moving as fast as two hundred miles per hour, will definitely leave a mark. But when volcanoes do erupt, the major lasting consequences are not lava or waves of hot gas. Mudslides occur in areas where there is ice present during the volcanic eruption.

     Although large chunks of debris, bombs, can cause major damage most particles released into the atmosphere from a volcano are ashes. This volcanic ash can cause major health problems from people breathing it and it can also cause many environmental problems due to the way ash can affect the climate.

     The best example of this occurred many years ago when an Indonesian volcano called Tambora erupted and caused drastic climate change for a decade. 1810-1819 is the decade referred to as the cold decade because it was the coldest the earth has been for the past 500 years. Recent ice cores from Greenland and the Arctic hint that the cause for this was a major volcanic eruption that left so much ash suspended in the atmosphere sunlight was blocked for a decade.

      The thing is the ash from Tambora would not have caused this big of a climate change so they have pinpointed that another eruption, an undocumented one, occurred in 1809 starting the decade off as cold and the eruption of Tambora in 1816 kept the coldness around for a few more years.

     The fact that two volcanic eruptions caused so much of a change is alarming. You can go onto Google Earth and witness the fact that volcanic activity is an ongoing thing and that all it takes to send our world from one environment issue into another is two of hundreds of volcanoes to have a major eruption. The funny thing about volcanoes and earthquakes is the fact that we have no control over them. There is nothing we can do to stop these natural disasters from occurring, all we can do is learn as much as we can so that minimum human life is lost. As far as a cold decade from a major eruption, maybe we have found the cure for global warming.

Looking for Green Energy

       Global warming and saving the planet is a popular topic these days. But the reoccurring question that everyone asks is how can we stop it or what can we do to help? The general answer is to reduce your carbon footprint and lead a greener life. Recycling is an obvious avenue to take but most people these days are becoming increasingly interested in green energy not just because of the environmental benefits but because of the money they will save in the long run.

            Some of the most known types of green energy include hydropower, solar power, wind power, and geothermal power. Hydropower can be found in the form of dams that channel water and turn turbines. Hydropower goes hand in hand with geothermal power where heat from magma is used to create steam which turns the turbines. Wind power is the same idea; wind gusts turn windmills, which in turn turbines that create electricity. Solar power is more complicated but the gist is that there are solar panels that harvest sunlight and convert it to workable electricity.

       Unfortunately although those who would want to invest in green energy would save money in the long run it takes a large sum of money to get these projects started. Also many people question the practicality of some methods like solar energy and others speak out against giant windmills that will litter and ruin the landscape.

            This has led scientists and engineers to search for ways to make green energy more readily available for people to use. One method that was recently proposed by two engineers at the University of Oviedo is to use old mine shafts for geothermal energy. Turning these old shafts into geothermal boilers could provide electricity and hot water to entire towns.

       The problem is that these engineers have spent the past few years trying to determine how much heat could be generated by these abandoned mine shafts. But when the shaft is abandoned it makes it hard for them to conduct proper experiments to determine these figures. But from one mine shaft that they have been able to study that has only been recently shut down they said that if water could be pumped in at seven degrees Celsius then it would generate enough heat to be beneficial to local towns.

       Geothermal energy could greatly reduce energy use because hot water could be provided and steam used to generate some electricity. The two engineers concluded that although more specifics need to be determined this could turn out to be a very sustainable energy resource but that if it is to be used then mine shafts will need to be converted immediately following their shut down in order to prevent deterioration which could cause safety issues in the long run. I think this is a brilliant idea that should be investigated by all countries especially the United States because this could be a step in the right direction towards sustainable energy.

Radon: A Growing Concern

       From a young age we are all taught general safety tips for our homes. Make sure your fire alarms are up to date, make sure your family has a plan in case of a fire, tornado, etc., make sure that all electronics are up to date, and make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector. The list is continuous but there seems to be one thing that is always neglected or forgotten.

       Radon is an odorless, tasteless, colorless gas that can be found in most homes. It is generated by the decay of an isotope called uranium-238 a naturally occurring radioactive element that is present in all rocks and soils to some degree. Although it is much more abundant and much more of a threat in areas that are heavy in granite, radon can be a problem anywhere.

         Radon is a known carcinogen and has recently been determined by many studies as the second leading cause of lung cancer globally behind smoking. It seeps from the subsoil into homes and accumulates on the ground floor. It is a big problem for families with basements. We are all exposed to small amounts of radon each day but constantly living in an area with a high concentration of radon will eventually lead to cancer.

            The most recent study was conducted in Transylvania by researchers from the University of Cantabria and the Babes-Bolyai University in Romania. Their study showed what multiple other studies have – that too much Radon will most likely lead to lung cancer and that smokers who are exposed to radon have a more than one hundred percent chance of having lung cancer. They isolated a group of homes in an area near an old uranium mine and studied the behavior of these individuals. In this area an individual had a 116% chance of getting lung cancer.

            Obviously radon is more dangerous than scientist had though. Recently the World Health Organization lowered the safe radon levels from 1000 becquerels to 100 becquerels. This in its self raises more issues. Current building regulations for homes in areas with high concentrations of radon need to be changed to accommodate for these risks. Researchers from the study urge people to build with more radon impermeable materials and for everyone, including people who live in areas where there are only trace amounts of radon, to get a detector for their homes.

            Awareness is the most important thing. It is not that people are not willing to buy a detector or keep batteries in it; they just don’t know that it is necessary to keep their families healthy. Local governments need to get involved like they do with smoke detectors and educate the public.