Geol 106: Environmental Geology and Natural Hazards

hanes@queensu.ca

Lecture 1:
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The relationship between humankind and our ever changing planet with a
focus on natural geologic hazards and environmental impacts which result
from population and land-use expansion and our increased use of water,
energy and mineral resources. A study of the sources and impact of pollution
and global climate change. Public perception and response to geological risk.
Textbook is Natural Hazards: Earths Processes as Hazards, Disasters, and
Catastrophes (3rd Canadian edition)
Nature can jump up and hit humans in the face
Volcanoes
Earthquakes like in Pakistan, recent one in Haiti
Earthquakes and tsunamis go hand in hand, like fukushima in Japan
Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown
Hurricanes/typhoon (Philippines one, hurricane sandy, hurricane Katrina)
Tornadoes are more localized than hurricanes, form path of destruction
NA is one of worst areas in world for tornados
Floods/droughts
Landslides/mudslides (major one in Alberta, Taiwan)
Meteorite/comet impacts (famous one is chicxulub meteorite crater, dinosaur
extinction)
Number of disasters had increased from 1900 to 2010 dramatically,
particularly from 1960.
Why has there been an increase in the impact of natural disasters?
o Population growth
There are two sides to the dynamic planet/humankind
Humans can jump up and hit nature in the face
Local: (ie sewage dumping, lac meganitic oil train fire explosion)
Regional: Desert was irrigated to grow cotton in the 60s, water
extracted from amudarya and syrdarya rivers, resulted in shrinkage
of the Aral Sea. Destroyed the fishing industry, shortened growing
season for cotton.
Carbon dioxide is greenhouse gas, atmospheric levels are rising tied to
burning of fossil fuels.

Lecture 2: Intro to earth system science and earth system management

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Goals of GEOL 106:

o What causes natural and anthropogenic hazards, disasters, and
catastrophes?
o How do we minimize risks associated with hazards, disasters, and
catastrophes?
o How does an understanding of geology allow us to answer the above?

1969: Moon landing, Neil Armstrong was first

Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside is available, a new idea
forms.
Impressive when you get out in space and look at earth, realize that its a
closed system and that we have limited resources and water and air. Space
makes you realize that thats home and the only home we have.
Suddenly saw the earth as fragile (spaceship) after seeing it from space
October 4th, 1957 Sputnik, first satellite
The world changes as we learn to see it in new ways, and the way we see the
world depends on how we use it. David Rothenburg
Number of USA environmental laws had increase around first space
photos/lunar landing.
There are no passengers on spaceship earth, we are all crew. Marshall
McLuhan
General public began to think about concept of a fragile earth
We made all this way to the mon to finally discover the Earth William
Anders
View of earth from space led to increased awareness of the fragility of the
earth and the need to better understand it.
President of the USA commissioned a study of the earth system, what do we
need to know in order to live in concert with this fragile earth?

The Goal of the Solid Earth Sciences:

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To understand the past, present, and future behaviour of the whole Earth
system
To use this understanding to maintain an environment in which the biosphere
and humankind will continue to flourish
Objectives of this:
o Understand the process evolved in the global earth system, with
attention to the interactions between its parts (Science)
o Sustain sufficient supplies of natural resourses (managing)
o Mitigate geological hazards (managing)
o Minimize effects of global and environmental change (managing)
o Improve standard of living (managing)

Earth System Science:

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The earth system is a set of interacting subsystems, a change in one

component can propagate through the entire system.
How its parts and their interaction evolved, how they function today, and how
they may be expected to function in the future.
Earth systems engineering = managing earth systems

Mitigating geological hazards:

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How to minimize effects of nature jumping up and hits humans in the face

Minimizing effects of global and environmental change:

Natural and anthropogenic

How humans can jump up and hit nature in the face and how nature can jump
up and hit humans in the face
Global, regional, and local

Sustaining sufficient supplies of natural resources:

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Sources: Energy resources, material resources

Sinks: where we dump our waste (this is also a limited resource)
Where has nature put these resources?
What are the future supplies of these resources like? Are we running out?
Can we extract and use these resources with minimal environmental effect?
(oil sands, mining)
What are the environmental impacts of our waste sinks?

Earth Model:
Solar energy -> planetary sources -> use -> sinks -> heat loss
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You cant have modern world without mining/extraction. Buildings in sky =

holes in ground.

Lecture 3: Earth System Science and Earth System Management/

Engineering
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Dont need to know details of back page of hand out.

Earth systems Engineering: The world as human artifact:
o Brad R Allenby:
o Managing the earths complex systems and their dynamics is the next
great challenge for the engineering profession
o Humans have been managing/engineering the earth since the start of
the human race

We can test his hypotheses by studying the past

o Study tree rings (1 ring per year), can be up to 3000 years old
o Width of ring tells us about local climate. (wide = rainy season, thin =
drought, scar = forest fire)
o Can extract a drill core now with rings, to avoid killing tree
o Tree rings wont give clear answer to his hypothesis

Can study ice cores from ice sheets (e.g. study of lead contamination in
Greenland ice sheets)
o Annual snow layers of the ice sheets trap dust, can drill down and
extract ice core
o Annual layer is combo of lighter layer and darker layer. (lighter in
summer, less dust)
o Can go back to specific year and examine amount of trapped lead
atoms (Pb) in dust

Lead contamination in Greenland glacier has increased during

industrial revolution and during phase of leaded gasoline. Is close to 0
again now.
o However, there is measurable lead (Pb) in the Greenland ice sheet that
came from when roman empire smelted lead (2000 years ago)
Advent of Agriculture: Fire and early agriculture (10K years ago)
Scale of earth-system engineering/management: How big is human
influence?
o Brad Allenby says the earth is increasing a product of human
engineering/management
o We can see the increase by observation (qualitatively)
o We can also quantitively measure the increase, like by how much the
population has grown
o World population dramatically increased during industrial revolution
(1700-1800 ish)
o World metal consumption and energy consumption has also
dramatically risen
o

How much material do humans move compared to the rest of natural

processes?
o Mines, agricultural movement,
o Total amount of earth moved by humans is tied with population growth/
rising largely
Can measure the amount moved by natural processes :
o Measure sediment carried by rivers to the sea
World wide total consumption of resources vs total mass of sediment
transported to the sea
o Humans move almost 4 times as much as other natural processes!
o The geological processes that reshape the surface of our planet now
take a back seat to human activity

Increase in waste:
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Lots of space junk around earth

(quantitative) amount of CO2 humans have added to the atmosphere from
fossil fuel burning
Coal (mainly carbon) -> burn it in air with oxygen -> produces CO2 (is a
greenhouse gas)
Greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun in the atmosphere and warm in up.
Three dominant energy sources are coal, oil, and gas, which all produce
carbon dioxide
Can measure change in atmospheric carbon dioxide
o Can measure it directly day-by-day (only started in the 1950s)
o Charles Keeling began doing that, did in Hawaii to avoid city influence
o Are sawtooth ups and down in the CO2 concentrations, and generally
increasing

o
o
o

Very small amount in the atmosphere, but can have very significant
effects as a greenhouse gas
The sawtooth pattern peaks in May, has an annual cycle. (On Keeling
Curve)
There clearly has been an increase in atmospheric CO2 over past 60
years but were humans responsible for this?