Solid-Earth Sciences and Society (1993) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-12
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From page 1... ...
Human societies face momentous decisions concerning their control of many future activities that require understanding the Earth. The issues include atmospheric changes, environmental degradation, vulnerability of populated sites to natural disasters, soil erosion, contamination of water supplies, provision of adequate supplies of energy and mineral resources, weighing the potential of nuclear power, and the destruction of species.
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Computational capabilities have revolutionized the handling of the vast amounts of data generated in earth science research and facilitated the rapid construction and testing of sophisticated models. Although recent years have, in some sense, been the best of times with the introduction of new concepts and sophisticated observing systems, the increasing calls for guidance or predictions or solutions for major societal problems require an even more dedicated cadre of earth scientists and facilities to meet the challenges of the next century.
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The recommendations and priorities presented in this report focus strongly on the problems of the solid-earth sciences and the opportunities for understanding that they provide. PRIORITIES Priority Themes: Objectives and Research Areas The range and scale of research opportunities far exceed the financial and personnel requirements that could reasonably be available.
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Interactions with the defense community have been organized around a common interest in the physical nature of the Earth, a concern over ensuring adequate supplies of strategic materials, and activities ranging from develop ment of navigation systems for submarines by mapping the magnetic field to detection of underground nuclear explosions. If advances in the solid-earth sciences are to meet evolving societal needs, there must be a sufficient number of well-qualified professionals.
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First, there will be a greater need for courses preparing students for growth in such areas as hydrology, land-use planning and engineering geology, environmental and urban geology, and waste disposal, which will result from society s need to devise environmentally sound ways of exploiting mineral and energy resources. Second, the conventional disciplinary courses will be supplemented by more comprehensive courses in earth system science that emphasize the interrelationships and feedback processes and the involvement of the biosphere in geochemical cycles.
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Global Geochemical ~ Geochemical cycles: atmospheres and oceans ~ Organic geochemistry and the origin of and 13iogeochemical · Evolution of crust from mantle petroleum Cycles · Fluxes along ocean spreading centers and · Microbiology and soils continental rift systems · Fluxes at convergent plate margins ~ Mathematical modeling in geochemistry III. Fluids in and on the · Analysis of drainage basins ~ Kinetics of water-rock interaction Earth · Mineral-water interface geochemistry ~ Analysis of drainage basins Pore fluids and active tectonics · Water quality and contamination · Magma generation and migration · Modeling water flow · Source-transport-accumulation models · Numerical modeling of the depositional environment · In SitU mineral resource extraction · Crustal fluids IV.
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Global Paleoenvironments and Biological Evolution | C Mitigate Geological Hazards D
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Funding for Priority Themes Total federal funding for solid-earth science activities in fiscal year 1990 was on the order of $1,368 million (see Appendix A)
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The convergence of interests and research is striking, and the classical subject of"engineering geology" could become a significant redefined area of critical importance for society. Research Recommendations The committee discovered a remarkable degree of consensus when it selected the top-priority research opportunities for each of the priority themes; the eight themes are listed below and are summarized in Table 3.
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High-priority topics are: · construction of models of the interaction between biogeochemical cycles and the solid earth and climatic cycles and · establishment of how geochemical cycles operate in the modern world. Priority Theme A-III · The past 150 million years · Prior to 150 million years ago · Construct models of the interaction between cycles · Establish how geochemical cycles operate in the modern world · Fluid flow in sedimentary basins · Microbial influences on fluid chemistry · Landform responses to climatic, tectonic, and hydrologic events · Understanding crustal evolution · Origin and variation of the magnetic field · Nature of the core-mantle boundary · Sedimentary basin research · Thermodynamic and kinetic understanding of water-rock interaction and mineral-water interface geochemistry · Energy and mineral exploration, production, and assessment strategies · Define and characterize areas of landslide hazard · Define and characterize potential volcanic hazards · Isolation of toxic and radioactive waste · Geochemistry and human health High-priority topics are: modeling fluid flow in sedimentary basins and ~ improved understanding of microbial influences on fluid chemistry, particularly groundwater.
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From page 11... ...
Priority Theme D Top priority: The earth sciences need to develop the ability to remediate polluted groundwaters on local and regional scales, em 11 phasizing microbial methods. Coordination of local, industry, state, and federal activities will enhance the potential for success, and international involvement would be desirable.
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From page 12... ...
With new methods of digital acquisition, handling, and archiving, and with the growth in the use of geographic information systems along with the Global Positioning System, there are major opportunities to apply the computer revolution to the solid-earth sciences. It is time to integrate the vast amounts of solid-earth science data in nondigital form, like maps, with the exponentially growing digital data sets.
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