Land Resources/Human Impact of Land Resources

What is bedrock? Parent Rock consisting of solid rock, and may have limestone, granite, marble, or other rocks that can be mined in quarries. Parent Rock consisting of solid rock, and may have limestone, granite, marble, or other rocks that can be mined in quarries.

Where is bedrock found? Under the C Horizon

How is bedrock extracted? Slabs of bedrock are often cut from quarry faces

How is bedrock useful to man? Used in construction of buildings, monuments, flooring, and fireplaces

How is the land in the United States being protected?

They are federal administered to protect timber, grazing areas, minerals, and energy resources. Also National Park Systems preserves special landforms and species of organisms.

List several Land Resources.

*Soil *Bedrock *Aggregates (Mixture of gravel, sand, and crushed stones that naturally accumulates on or near the Earth’s surface.

Some found in floodplains of river valleys and in alluvial fans found in mountainous areas. Some deposits of glacial activity in moraines, eskers, kames, and outwash plains, even erratics from glaciers.) –Used in cons- truction and building of roads

*Ores *Clay-used for making bricks, china, ceramics, tiles, and pottery *Salt *Gypsum-makes plaster *Talc-makes baby powder and cosmetics *Graphite-lubricants and pencils

State several ways how man is destructing our land resources.  #1Surface Mining  For iron, bauxite (aluminum ore), copper, coal and gold  Extracted by removing huge amounts of overlaying soil and rock, in do so it completely changes the landscape

#2 Underground Mining-(also called subsurface mining) Less disruptive to Earth’s surface than surface mining Problems-Unless Hold ponds are built (which can leak too) Rain goes through these piles of waste and can dissolve and become toxic metals that go into nearby streams and rivers causing water pollution.

#3 Agriculture A.) Monoculture-fungus or parasites kill one crop a lot faster than when several crops are in an area.

B.) Pesticides-boosts food production but kills the good organisms as well as the bad ones. Also, insects build up resistance against pesticides so the farmers have to increase the strength of the pesticides. Also pollutes the groundwater and surface water and land itself.

C.) Topsoil-take 1000’s of years to form so it is hard to replace, Erosion occurs when the land is cleared of forest or grasslands for the 1st time. Nitrogen cycle is disturbed too.

#4Deforestation #5Urban Development Waste disposal problems need to be fixed Wetland destroyed and must be build elsewhere Bioremediation is helpful way to clean up toxic waste: Organisms are used to clean it up because they eat it.

The End