| Background
sheet #3
GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES:
FIELDS OF APPLICATION; THE NEW FRONTIERS
Achieving
control of the human impact on natural events
Every
inhabitant of the developed world today consumes not only about
3,000 kilograms of petroleum and 2,500
of coal each year but also 4,900 kg of various
rocks and 4,000 of gravel, sand and clay.
In all, 17 tons of mineral products per year are necessary
for each inhabitant, and the number is constantly rising.
Transferring
these huge volumes of materials for our communities we make
the territory ever more rigid and ever less able to evolve and
to respond to the natural rhythms of geodynamic processes. The
world is always more exposed, therefore, to catastrophic effects
even in the face of simple meteorological adversity.
In
recent times the frequency of disastrous events in every latitude
of the planet has increased awareness of the instability of
natural systems, but people have become accustomed to the hazards.
Only now the approach of public opinion has started changing
slowly, while at the same time the impact of human activities
is growing. Man himself has become, in effect, a “geological
agent,” the consequences of whose actions are comparable
to the results of many natural processes.
A
vast field of knowledge is involved in attempting to better
understanding the natural events and to mitigate, as far as
possible, their catastrophic effects. Only knowledge can enable
us to achieve this aim. And that precisely is part of the daily
work of geologists
The
great themes of geology
Internal
structure and geodynamics. Understanding the dynamic
forces operating inside the internal structure of the Planet
represents one of the fields of greatest interest in studies
of Earth Sciences. The aim is to understand how this “organism”
works; we can touch only the skin, considering that the Earth,
whose radius is more than 6,000 kilometers, can be perforated
with wells up to a limit of only a few kilometers in depth.
For this reason, research is based on indirect methods, which
attempt to reproduce in the laboratory the conditions of temperature
and pressure existing in depth.
The
importance of this research for Italy and the entire Mediterranean
basin is immense since they are at the center of a zone of complex
interaction of lithospheric plates, with intense seismic and
volcanic activity.
Climate change. The dynamics of the great external
masses of the Planet, the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, and
their interactions with the lithosphere and the biosphere constitute
an extremely complex problem, the terms of which change continuously
because of the increasing weight of the anthropic factor.
Geology enables the reconstruction of climatic variations of
the past, both on the scale of geological ages (millions of
years) and on that of decades in the last 200,000 years through
the study of ice cores.
Marine
and oceanographic geology. During recent decades marine
geology has won an extremely prominent position in the field
of Earth Sciences. Geophysical campaigns, deep drilling, stratigraphic,
sedimentological and geochemical analyses have led not only
to the elaboration of a new global tectonic model but to discoveries
of vital importance to humanity as well.
The
sea has become, however, the principal dumping place for human
wastes and it is therefore essential to know the routes and
the means of dispersion of various polluting agents, the physical
fluvial, marine and atmospheric processes which control them,
the food chains, the modifications of natural sites, the chemical
and biochemical exchanges between water and sediments, etc.
In this regard too the Mediterranean, in view of its nature
as a semi-closed sea and of the growing urbanization of its
coasts, is a focal point of scientific interest.
Mineral,
energy and water resources. The Earth Sciences have
always had a major part in locating and obtaining supplies of
mineral and energy resources and as concerns their utilization.
Today however both these aspects pose serious problems of environmental
compatibility. Reconciling the needs for mining and the subsequent
uses of these resources with the safeguarding of the territory
and the environment now constitutes an authentic scientific
and cultural challenge; to meet it geology plays a central role.
An
even more delicate problem is presented by the exploitation
of water resources, water having become ever more scarce and
more precious. In the view of Earth Sciences, solutions which
can guarantee the least damaging exploitation of this vital
resource cannot be limited to engineering. The hydrological
system too has its history and has had its evolution over time;
the contribution of geological knowledge cannot be overlooked,
but on the contrary must be integrated with other specialized
approaches.
Hydrogeological
instability may be triggered by natural factors or
by anthropic causes; the effects, that is, of incorrect human
activities in the environment. Geology enables the study of
evolving mechanisms of natural phenomena, and can suggest the
measures most suitable for mitigating the effects of this misuse.
New
fields of activity. The relaunching of Earth Sciences,
which is vital in order that more compatible environmental policies
be defined, is taking place through new fields of study and
specific research; for example:
Soil science is the study of soils resulting from the interaction
of rocks, water, atmosphere and organisms. The state of health
of soils is essential to agriculture and consequently to food.
On a worldwide scale, soil erosion increases at a rate of 0.7%
per year, and this increase is considered by the experts as
one of the greatest dangers to the entire biological system.
Geology
of urban areas is another field of increasing interest
because some of the elements which led our predecessors to choose
certain places and not others for their urban settlements are
changed significantly today, or they find themselves in a different
context; among these factors, climate and availability of water
resources.
The
natural environment. Enhancement and defense of the natural
environment represent logical extensions of activities related
to Earth Sciences, whose philosophy cannot but be naturalistic,
particularly in regard to identifying and conserving geological
sites of major interest. There is a need to reconquer that guiding
role which. the explosion of environmental questions in recent
years, in the wake of a long series of disasters, fragmented
among too many actors, often without adequate preparation.
Geoarcheology.
Similarly, custody of the cultural patrimony and of testimonies
to the past cannot neglect the new contributions which Earth
Sciences are offering, as in Geoarcheology, which concerns geological
aspects of recognizing, locating, interpreting and reconstructing
the archeological sites and of the objects found in them.
Planetary
geology. Planetary spaces too open to the Earth Sciences
new horizons for exploration. Planetary geology is focusing
its attention on those celestial objects formed by a solid body
whose evolutionary processes may be comparable to those of the
Earth and whose surfaces have kept traces of their evolution.
The
culture of prevention
In comparison with the recent past, Earth Sciences today are
far better equipped to perform a significant or even determinant
part in the prevention of disastrous events and in mitigating
their effects; they are able to comprehend evolving scenarios
in order to favor the more prudent use of energy and mineral
resources, with improved conservation of the territory and of
the cultural heritage represented by historical testimony disseminated
on the Planet.
All
of this should give geology a “political” role and
weight much more substantial than it musters today. This is
especially evident in Italy, as demonstrated by the data on
scientific research: the number of those employed in this field
represents little more than 2% of the total
of those working in government-sponsored research. Considering
the extreme vulnerability of the Italian territory to the principal
geological phenomena, this is paradoxical. The frequency of
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides and the
fact that almost half the Italian territory is at hydrogeological
risk point to the need for a very different spread of forces
in the field and of financial commitment.
This
cultural lag must be overcome in order to give priority to an
authentic culture of prevention. The public must be made aware
that actions taken after disasters occur and ill considered
remedies will lead to exponentially higher costs than policies
oriented towards environmental sustainability.
Press
Office Hill & Knowlton - Gaia
For information: Ph # +39 06 4416401 - +39 335 1309390
Alessia Calvanese, calvanesea@hkgaia.com, Irene Celli, cellii@hkgaia.com
www.32igc.com
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