Environmental geology

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The branch of geology that deals with the ways in which geology affects people. Examples of the effect of geology on human civilizations include (1) the ways that fertile soils develop from rocks and how these soils can become polluted by human activities; (2) how rocks and soils move down-slope to destroy roads, houses, and other human constructions; (3) sources of surface and subsurface water supplies and how they become polluted; (4) why floods occur where they do and how human activities affect floods; (5) locations of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and the dangers they pose; (6) location of mineral resources such as copper, oil and gas, and uranium, and how mining these resources can pollute the environment; (7) how human activities can pollute the atmosphere and cause global warming, sea-level rise, and ozone depletion. See also Air pollution; Earthquake; Soil conservation; Volcano; Water pollution.

Environmental geology, like hydrogeology, is a multidisciplinary field of applied science and is closely related to engineering geology and somewhat related to environmental geography. They all involve the study of the interaction of humans with the geologic environment including the biosphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, and to some extent the atmosphere. It includes:

• managing geological and hydrogeological resources such as fossil fuels, minerals, water (surface and ground water), and land use.
• defining and mitigating exposure of natural hazards on humans
• managing industrial and domestic waste disposal and minimizing or eliminating effects of pollution, and
• performing associated activities, often involving litigation.

See also

• Soil contamination

External links

• Definition of environmental geology

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