Cultural Connections to Geology
Geology and human culture have a long history together. Throughout the ages as cultures have developed around the world, people have depended on earth materials for cultivating crops; constructing dwellings; and implementing metals for tools, currencies, and weapons. Although we may not often think about it, everyone alive relies on geologic resources such as minerals, rocks, water, and soils. For example, we use metals processed from ores to build our transportation vehicles, construct our buildings, and create our appliances and electronic devices used within those buildings. We consume fossil fuels for power, use silica sand to make glass, crush stone to create our highways; and use salts to deice those roadways. The abundant plastics that surround our lives today come from petroleum sources. Even the toothpaste we use each morning contains earth ingredients such as: clay minerals, abrasives (quartz, calcite, or phosphates), and cavity fighting fluoride from the mineral fluorite.
Geology also plays an important role in where cultures have developed. As our global population continues to grow, more and more people dwell in geologically hazardous places. Thousands of people each year lose their lives or are injured due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, winter storms, landslides, heat waves, volcanic eruptions, and tsunami.