Term paper on Geology

Geology Essays

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Physical changes in the land, soil, water, and air,

associated with industrialization directly and indirectly

affect the biological environment. Direct impacts include

deaths of plants, animals, or people, caused by mining

activity or contact with toxic soil or water from mines.

Indirect impacts include changes in nutrient cycling, total

biomass, species diversity, and eco-system stability due to

alterations in groundwater or surface water availability or

quality.

Water resources are particularly vulnerable to

degradation even if drainage is controlled and sediment

pollution reduced. Surface drainage is often altered at

mine sites, and run off from precipitation may infiltrate

waste material, leaching out trace elements and minerals.

Trace elements leached from mining wastes and concentrated

in water, soil, or plants may be toxic, causing diseases in

people and other animals who drink the water, eat the

plants, or use the soil. These potentially harmful trace

elements include cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, iron,

molybdenum, zinc, and others.

Groundwater may also be polluted by mining operations

when waste comes into contact with slow-moving subsurface

waters. Surface-water infiltration or groundwater movement

through mining waste piles causes leaching of sulfide

materials that may pollute groundwater. The polluted

groundwater may eventually seep into streams to pollute

surface water. Groundwater problems are particularly

troublesome because reclamation of polluted groundwater is

very difficult and expensive.

An example of an area where trace elements have

affected a large part of the population is in Japan. An

increased amount of cadmium was released into the Zintsu

River Basin near the end of World War I. At this time the

Japanese industrial complex was damaged and good

industrial-waste disposal practices were largely ignored.

Mining operations for cadmium dumped mining wastes into

rivers. The cadmium influx occurred in estuarine waters and

in sediments after the intake of industrial wastes.

Farmers then used this contaminated water downstream

for domestic and agricultural purposes. This intake of

cadmium by human beings caused a chronic disease within the

Japanese population known as Itai-Itai. The name Itai-Itai

suits the disease because it is Japanese for ouch-ouch.

Itai-Itai is painful and crippling. It attacks the bones

causing them to become so thin and brittle that they break

easily.

Many solutions and experiments have been tried to find

reason and absolution of cadmium influx, but none has given

us a perfect resolution of the cause. Such experiments as

studying the bones...

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