professors from colleges and universities around the country share their research and knowledge of current, environmentally related topics with students through boxed readings, "Geologists at Work", throughout the text.Montgomery's emphasis is on the physical constraints imposed on human activities by the geologic processes that have shaped and are still shaping our natural environment. The principal aim of this book is to present the reader with a broad overview of environmental geology and the book looks at both how the earth developed into its present condition and where matters seem to be moving for the future.The book starts with some background information: a brief outline of earth's development to the present, and a look at one major reason why environmental problems today are so pressing - the large and rapidly growing human population. This is followed by a short discussion of the basic materials of geology - rocks and minerals - and some of their physical properties. The next several chapters treat individual processes in detail. A series of five chapters deals with water resources, soil, minerals, and energy, the rates at which they are being consumed, probable amounts remaining, and projections of future prospects. Three chapters examine the interrelated problems of air and water pollution and the strategies available for the disposal of various kinds of waste. The final few chapters deal with a more diverse assortment of subjects. Environmental problems spawn laws intended to solve them; the environmental-law chapter looks briefly at a sampling of laws related to geologic matters discussed earlier in the book, as well as at some of the problems with such laws. The land-use planning and engineering geology chapter examines geologic constraints on construction schemes and the broader issue of trying to determine the optimum use(s) for particular parcels of land. Geomedicine, a relatively new field covered in the last chapter, concerns the relationship between health and the geologic setting in which we live.

Hide more