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Each chapter includes one or more case studies. Some
involve a situation, problem, or application that might be
encountered in everyday life. Others offer additional case histo-
ries or relevant examples. The tone is occasionally light, but the
underlying issues are nonetheless real. (While some case stud-
ies were inspired by actual events, and include specific factual
information, all of the characters quoted, and their interactions,
are wholly fictitious.)
Additional online resources available on the website for
each chapter are of two kinds. One is “NetNotes,” a modest
collection of Internet sites that provide additional information
and/or images relevant to the chapter content. These should
prove useful to both students and instructors. An effort has
been made to concentrate on sites with material at an appropri-
ate level for the book’s intended audience and also on sites
likely to be relatively stable in the very fluid world of the
Internet (government agencies, educational institutions, or
professional-association sites). The other is “Suggested
Readings/References,” some of which can also be accessed
online. A previous appendix on maps and satellite imagery
included in earlier editions has been moved to the text’s web-
site along with other readings formerly in the text.
New and Updated Content
Environmental geology is, by its very nature, a dynamic field in
which new issues continue to arise and old ones to evolve. Every
chapter has been updated with regard to data, examples, and
illustrations.
Geology is a visual subject, and photographs, satellite
imagery, diagrams, and graphs all enhance students’ learning.
Accordingly, this edition includes more than one hundred new
photographs/images and forty new figures, with revisions hav-
ing been made to dozens more.
Significant content additions and revisions to specific
chapters include:
Chapter 1 Population data and projections have been
updated; Case Study 1 includes new lunar data.
Chapter 2 The Libby, Montana, vermiculite case study has
been updated and refined.
Chapter 3 The chapter has been reorganized for better flow,
and discussion of compressive and tensile stress as
related to tectonics and plate boundaries has been
clarified.
Chapter 4 Discussion of waves, seismic waves, and
seismographs has been enhanced. Much new material
has been added on the recent earthquakes in Japan,
Haiti, New Zealand, and elsewhere. Case Study 4.1 now
includes extensive discussion of the Japanese tsunami,
and the chapter notes application of the Japanese
earthquake early warning system to this quake. Case
Study 4.2 updates information on SAFOD results. The
trial of the Italian seismologists who failed to predict
the 2009 l’Aquila earthquake is noted.
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Chapter 5 New material on the roles of fluid and of pressure
reduction in promoting mantle melting has been added.
The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull and its effects on air
travel are discussed. The status of Redoubt as examined
in Case Study 5.2 has been updated, and the possible
role of seismic activity in triggering the eruption of
Chaitén volcano noted.
Chapter 6 The 2011 Mississippi River flooding is discussed,
including the role of deliberate breaching of levees.
Chapter 7 Material on the effects of Hurricanes Irene and
Sandy has been added, particularly in Case Study 7.
Chapter 8 The 2010 landslide that buried Attabad, Pakistan,
is discussed, together with its aftermath.
Chapter 9 Discussion of possible causes of past ice ages has
been expanded, now including the potential role of the
evolution of land plants; discussions of Milankovitch
cycles and of desertification have been enhanced.
Chapter 10 Data on global temperature changes have been
updated, as have data on changes in alpine glacier
thickness; changes in the thickness and extent of Arctic
sea ice cover are presented, and the breakup of the
Wilkins ice shelf in Antarctica noted. Discussion of
global-change impacts has been expanded and now
includes ocean acidification. Climate-change
vulnerability across Africa as identified by the U.N.
Environment Programme is examined.
Chapter 11 Status of water levels in Lake Mead and of Lake
Chad and the Aral Sea have been updated. Discussion of
Darcy’s Law has been clarified. Case Study 11 has been
expanded, with information on radium in ground water
nationally, and a note on bottled versus tap-water
quality. New data on water withdrawals, nationally and
by state, and on irrigation-water use by state, are
presented; groundwater monitoring by satellite
illustrates declining water levels.
Chapter 12 Data on soil erosion by wind and water,
nationally and by region within the United States, have
been updated, highlighting areas in which erosion rates
exceed sustainable limits.
Chapter 13 The discussion of resources versus reserves is
incorporated early in the chapter. Distribution of world
reserves of a dozen key metals has been updated, along
with data on U.S. per-capita consumption of select minerals
and fuels. All tables of U.S. and world mineral production,
consumption, and reserves have been updated. The former
Case Study 13 (now 13.2) reflects recent commodity price
rises. A new Case Study 13.1 has been added to focus on
the rare-earth elements, their importance, and the current
dominance of China in the world REE trade.
Chapter 14 All data on U.S. energy production and
consumption by source have been updated. Information
on shale gas, its distribution, and its significance for U.S.
natural-gas reserves has been added, with concerns
relating to fracking noted. The Deepwater Horizon oil
spill is discussed; discussion of the Athabasca oil sands
has been expanded.
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Chapter 15 Extensive discussion of the Fukushima
power-plant accident has been incorporated in Case
Study 15.1. New data on world use of nuclear fission
power and on U.S. solar and wind-energy potential
across the country are presented. Iceland has been
added as a new comparison case in figure 15.33, and
data on the remaining countries’ energy-source
patterns updated.
Chapter 16 Data on the composition and fate of U.S.
municipal wastes have been updated. A discussion of the
challenge of estimating the effects of low-level radiation
exposure has been added, and the status of Yucca
Mountain and of world development of high-level
nuclear-waste repositories updated.
Chapter 17 The significance of trace elements to health and
the concept of the dose-response curve are incorporated
early in the chapter. New data on nutrient loading in the
Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River basin are
presented. The growing problem of pharmaceuticals in
wastewater is noted, and maps modeling nutrient and
herbicide concentrations in ground water across the
country are examined.
Chapter 18 Data on sources of U.S. air pollutants, air
quality, and acid rain across the country have been
updated. Trends in air pollution in selected major U.S.
cities are shown, and particulate air pollution around the
globe, including its varied sources, is considered. New
data on ground-level ozone in the United States and
stratospheric ozone globally are presented, and the
recently recognized Arctic “ozone hole” is discussed.
Chapter 19 Seafloor imaging as it relates to resource rights
under the Law of the Sea Treaty is illustrated.
Discussion of the Montreal Protocol has been expanded
to include the evolving problem of HFCs and HCFCs
and ozone depletion. The Keystone XL pipeline has
been added to Case Study 19.
Chapter 20 New data on land cover/use, recent population
change, and population density for the United States are
examined. In the engineering-geology section, discus-
sions of the cases of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and of
the St. Francis Dam have been expanded, and the case
of the Taum Sauk dam failure added.
The online “NetNotes” have been checked, all URLs con-
firmed, corrected, or deleted as appropriate, and new entries
have been added for every chapter. The “Suggested Readings/
References” have likewise been updated, with some older materials
removed and new items added in each chapter.
Organization
The book starts with some background information: a brief out-
line 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
vi Preface
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minerals—and some of their physical properties, which intro-
duces a number of basic terms and concepts that are used in later
chapters.
The next several chapters treat individual processes in
detail. Some of these are large-scale processes, which may
involve motions and forces in the earth hundreds of kilome-
ters below the surface, and may lead to dramatic, often cata-
strophic events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Other processes—such as the flow of rivers and glaciers or
the blowing of the wind—occur only near the earth’s surface,
altering the landscape and occasionally causing their own
special problems. In some cases, geologic processes can be
modified, deliberately or accidentally; in others, human
activities must be adjusted to natural realities. The section on
surface processes concludes with a chapter on climate, which
connects or affects a number of the surface processes
described earlier.
A subject of increasing current concern is the availability
of resources. A series of five chapters deals with water re-
sources, soil, minerals, and energy, the rates at which they are
being consumed, probable amounts remaining, and projections
of future availability and use. In the case of energy resources,
we consider both those sources extensively used in the past and
new sources that may or may not successfully replace them in
the future.
Increasing population and increasing resource consump-
tion lead to an increasing volume of waste to be disposed of;
thoughtless or inappropriate waste disposal, in turn, commonly
creates increasing pollution. Three chapters examine the inter-
related problems of air and water pollution and the strategies
available for the disposal of various kinds of wastes.
The final two chapters deal with a more diverse assort-
ment of subjects. Environmental problems spawn laws intended
to solve them; chapter 19 looks briefly at a sampling of laws,
policies, and international agreements related to geologic mat-
ters discussed earlier in the book, and some of the problems
with such laws and accords. Chapter 20 examines geologic con-
straints on construction schemes and the broader issue of trying
to determine the optimum use(s) for particular parcels of land—
matters that become more pressing as population growth pushes
more people to live in marginal places.
Relative to the length of time we have been on earth,
humans have had a disproportionate impact on this planet.
Appendix A explores the concept of geologic time and its mea-
surement and looks at the rates of geologic and other processes
by way of putting human activities in temporal perspective.
Appendix B provides short reference keys to aid in rock and
mineral identification, and the inside back cover includes units
of measurement and conversion factors.
Of course, the complex interrelationships among geo-
logic processes and features mean that any subdivision into
chapter-sized pieces is somewhat arbitrary, and different in-
structors may prefer different sequences or groupings (streams
and ground water together, for example). An effort has been
made to design chapters so that they can be resequenced in such
ways without great difficulty.
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Acknowledgments
A great many people have contributed to the development of one
or another edition of this book. Portions of the manuscript of the
first edition were read by Colin Booth, Lynn A. Brant, Arthur H.
Brownlow, Ira A. Furlong, David Huntley, John F. Looney, Jr.,
Robert A. Matthews, and George H. Shaw, and the entire book
was reviewed by Richard A. Marston and Donald J. Thompson.
The second edition was enhanced through suggestions from
Robert B. Furlong, Jeffrey J. Gryta, David Gust, Robert D. Hall,
Stephen B. Harper, William N. Mode, Martin Reiter, and Laura
L. Sanders; the third, with the assistance of Susan M. Cashman,
Robert B. Furlong, Frank Hanna, William N. Mode, Paul Nelson,
Laura L. Sanders, and Michael A. Velbel; the fourth, through
the input of reviewers Herbert Adams, Randall Scott Babcock,
Pascal de Caprariis, James Cotter, Dru Germanoski, Thomas E.
Hendrix, Gordon Love, Steven Lund, Michael McKinney, Barbara
Ruff, Paul Schroeder, Ali Tabidian, Clifford Thurber, and
John Vitek. The fifth edition was improved thanks to reviews by
Kevin Cole, Gilbert N. Hanson, John F. Hildenbrand, Ann E.
Homes, Alvin S. Konigsberg, Barbara L. Ruff, Vernon P. Scott,
Jim Stimson, Michael Whitsett, and Doreen Zaback; the sixth,
by reviews from Ray Beiersdorfer, Ellin Beltz, William B. N.
Berry, Paul Bierman, W. B. Clapham, Jr., Ralph K. Davis, Brian
viii Preface
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E. Lock, Gregory Hancock, Syed E. Hasan, Scott W. Keyes,
Jason W. Kelsey, John F. Looney Jr., Christine Massey, Steve
Mattox, William N. Mode, William A. Newman, Clair R. Ossian,
David L. Ozsvath, Alfred H. Pekarek, Paul H. Reitan, and Don
Rimstidt. Improvements in the seventh edition were inspired by
reviewers Thomas J. Algaeo, Ernest H. Carlson, Douglas
Crowe, Richard A. Flory, Hari P. Garbharran, Daniel Horns,
Ernst H. Kastning, Abraham Lerman, Mark Lord, Lee Ann
Munk, June A. Oberdorfer, Assad I. Panah, James S. Reichard,
Frederick J. Rich, Jennifer Rivers Coombs, Richard Sleezer,
and Michael S. Smith, and the eighth edition benefited from
suggestions by Richard Aurisano, Thomas B. Boving, Ernest
H. Carlson, Elizabeth Catlos, Dennis DeMets, Hailiang Dong,
Alexander Gates, Chad Heinzel, Edward Kohut, Richard Mc-
Gehee, Marguerite Moloney, Lee Slater, and Dan Vaughn, and
additional comments by Nathan Yee. The ninth edition was
strengthed through the reviews of Christine Aide, James
Bartholomew, Thomas Boving, Jim Constantopoulos, Mark
Groszos, Duke Ophori, Bianca Pedersen, John Rockaway,
Kevin Svitana, and Clifford H. Thurber. This tenth edition has,
in turn, been improved as a result of the sharp eyes and
thoughtful suggestions of reviewers Michael Caudill, Hocking
College; Katherine Grote, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire;
Lee Slater, Rutgers–Newark; Alexis Templeton, University of
Colorado; Adil Wadia, The University of Akron Wayne Col-
lege; and Lee Widmer, Xavier University.
The input of all of the foregoing individuals, and of many
other users who have informally offered additional advice, has
substantially improved the text, and their help is most grate-
fully acknowledged. If, as one reviewer commented, the text
“just keeps getting better,” a large share of the credit certainly
belongs to the reviewers. Any remaining shortcomings are, of
course, my own responsibility.
M. Dalecheck, C. Edwards, I. Hopkins, and J. McGregor at
the USGS Photo Library in Denver provided invaluable assistance
with the photo research over the years. The encouragement of a
number of my colleagues—particularly Colin Booth, Ron C.
Flemal, Donald M. Davidson, Jr., R. Kaufmann, and Eugene C. Perry,
Jr.—was a special help during the development of the first edition.
The ongoing support and interest of fellow author, deanly colleague,
and ecologist Jerrold H. Zar has been immensely helpful. Thanks
are also due to the several thousand environmental geology stu-
dents I have taught, many of whom in the early years suggested that
I write a text, and whose classes collectively have provided a testing
ground for many aspects of the presentations herein.
My family has been supportive of this undertaking from
the inception of the first edition. A very special vote of appre-
ciation goes to my husband Warren—ever-patient sounding
board, occasional photographer and field assistant—in whose
life this book has so often loomed so large.
Last, but assuredly not least, I express my deep gratitude
to the entire McGraw-Hill book team for their enthusiasm, pro-
fessionalism, and just plain hard work, without which success-
ful completion of each subsequent edition of this book would
have been impossible.
Carla W. Montgomery
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Contents
Preface iv

SECTION I FOUNDATIONS

CHAPTER
CHA 1 CHAPTER
CHA 2
Planet and Population: Rocks and Minerals—
An Overview 1 A First Look 21
Earth in Space and Time 2 Atoms, Elements, Isotopes, Ions, and
The Early Solar System 2 Compounds 22
The Planets 2 Atomic Structure 22

Earth, Then and Now 3 Elements and Isotopes 22

Life on Earth 6 Ions 22

The Periodic Table 23
Geology, Past and Present 7
Compounds 23
The Geologic Perspective 7
Geology and the Scientific Method 8 Minerals—General 24
The Motivation to Find Answers 8 Minerals Defined 24

Wheels Within Wheels: Earth Cycles and Systems 10 Identifying Characteristics of Minerals 24
Other Physical Properties of Minerals 24
Nature and Rate of Population Growth 11
Growth Rates: Causes and Consequences 11 Types of Minerals 27
Growth Rate and Doubling Time 13 Silicates 28
Nonsilicates 29
Impacts of the Human Population 14
Farmland and Food Supply 14 Rocks 32
 Case Study 2 Asbestos—A Tangled Topic 32
Population and Nonfood Resources 15
Igneous Rocks 34
Uneven Distribution of People and Resources 16
Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks 34
Disruption of Natural Systems 16
 Case Study 1 Earth’s Moon 18 Metamorphic Rocks 36
S U M M A R Y 18 The Rock Cycle 39
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS 20 SUMMARY 40
EXERCISES 20 KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS 40
EXERCISES 40

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SECTION II INTERNAL PROCESS

Earthquake-Related Hazards and Their
CHAPTER
CHA 3 Reduction 70
Ground Motion 70
Plate Tectonics 41 Ground Failure 75
Plate Tectonics—Accumulating Evidence 43 Tsunamis and Coastal Effects 76
The Topography of the Sea Floor 43  Case Study 4.1 Megathrusts Make Mega-Disasters 78

Magnetism in Rocks—General 43 Fire 80

Paleomagnetism and Seafloor Spreading 45 Earthquake Prediction and Forecasting 80

Age of the Ocean Floor 45 Seismic Gaps 80
Polar-Wander Curves 46 Earthquake Precursors and Prediction 80

Plate Tectonics—Underlying Concepts 48 Current Status of Earthquake Prediction 81

Stress and Strain in Geologic Materials 48 The Earthquake Cycle and Forecasting 82

Lithosphere and Asthenosphere 50 Earthquake Early Warnings? 83

Locating Plate Boundaries 50 Public Response to Earthquake Hazards 83

Types of Plate Boundaries 52 Earthquake Control? 84

 Case Study 4.2 Understanding Faults Better—Parkfield and
Divergent Plate Boundaries 52
SAFOD 85
Convergent Plate Boundaries 52
Future Earthquakes in North America? 86
Transform Boundaries 55
Areas of Widely Recognized Risk 86
How Far, How Fast, How Long, How Come? 56 Other Potential Problem Areas 87
Past Motions, Present Velocities 56 SUMMARY 88
Why Do Plates Move? 57 KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS 89
EXERCISES 89
 Case Study 3 New Theories for Old—Geosynclines and
Plate Tectonics 59

Plate Tectonics and the Rock Cycle

SUMMARY 60
60 CHAPTER
CHA 5
K E Y T E R M S A N D C O N C E P T S 61
E X E R C I S E S 61
Volcanoes 90
Magma Sources and Types 91
CHAPTER
CHA 4 Styles and Locations of Volcanic Activity 93
Continental Fissure Eruptions 93
Earthquakes 62
Individual Volcanoes—Locations 94
Earthquakes—Terms and Principles 64 Shield Volcanoes 95
Basic Terms 64 Cinder Cones and Pyroclastics 95
Types of Faults 65 Composite Volcanoes 96
Earthquake Locations 66
Hazards Related to Volcanoes 97
Seismic Waves and Earthquake Severity 67 Lava 97
Seismic Waves 67 Pyroclastics 99
Locating the Epicenter 67 Lahars 101
Magnitude and Intensity 68

x Contents
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 Case Study 5.1 Living with Lava on Hawaii 102 Volcanic Eruption Precursors 109
Pyroclastic Flows—Nuées Ardentes 104 Evacuation as Response to Eruption Predictions 111
Toxic Gases 105
More on Volcanic Hazards in the
Steam Explosions 105 United States 111
Landslides and Collapse 106 Cascade Range 111
Secondary Effects: Climate and Atmospheric The Aleutians 112
Chemistry 107
Long Valley and Yellowstone Calderas 113
Issues in Predicting Volcanic Eruptions 108  Case Study 5.2 Redoubt Volcano, Alaska 114
Classification of Volcanoes by Activity 108 S U M M A R Y 118
K E Y T E R M S A N D C O N C E P T S 118
The Volcanic Explosivity Index 109 E X E R C I S E S 119

SECTION III SURFACE PROCESSES

CHAPTER
CHA 6 CHAPTER
CHA 7
Streams and Flooding 120 Coastal Zones and
The Hydrologic Cycle 121 Processes 146
Streams and Their Features 121 Nature of the Coastline 147
Streams—General 121 Waves and Tides 147
Sediment Transport 122 Sediment Transport and Deposition 149
Velocity, Gradient, and Base Level 123 Storms and Coastal Dynamics 149
Velocity and Sediment Sorting and Deposition 124
Emergent and Submergent Coastlines 151
Channel and Floodplain Evolution 126
Causes of Long-Term Sea-Level Change 151
Flooding 127 Signs of Changing Relative Sea Level 153
Factors Governing Flood Severity 127 Present and Future Sea-Level Trends 154
Flood Characteristics 129
Coastal Erosion and “Stabilization” 154
Stream Hydrographs 130
Beach Erosion, Protection, and Restoration 155
Flood-Frequency Curves 130
Cliff Erosion 158
 Case Study 6.1 How Big Is the One-Hundred-Year Flood? 132

Consequences of Development in Floodplains 134 Especially Difficult Coastal Environments 159

Barrier Islands 159
Strategies for Reducing Flood Hazards 135
Estuaries 161
Restrictive Zoning and “Floodproofing” 135
 Case Study 7 Hurricanes and Coastal Vulnerability 162
Retention Ponds, Diversion Channels 136
Costs of Construction—and Reconstruction—in
Channelization 137
High-Energy Environments 164
Levees 137
Recognition of Coastal Hazards 164
Flood-Control Dams and Reservoirs 139 S U M M A R Y 16 6
 Case Study 6.2 Life on the Mississippi: The Ups and K E Y T E R M S A N D C O N C E P T S 16 6
Downs of Levees 140 E X E R C I S E S 16 6
Flood Warnings? 142
S U M M A R Y 14 4
K E Y T E R M S A N D C O N C E P T S 14 5
E X E R C I S E S 14 5

Contents xi
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Ice Ages and Their Possible Causes 198

CHAPTER
CHA 8  Case Study 9 Vanishing Glaciers,
Vanishing Water Supply 200
Mass Movements 167 Wind and Its Geologic Impacts 202
Factors Influencing Slope Stability 168 Wind Erosion 203
Effects of Slope and Materials 168 Wind Deposition 204
Effects of Fluid 169 Dune Migration 205
Effects of Vegetation 171 Loess 205
Earthquakes 171 Deserts and Desertification 206
Quick Clays 172 Causes of Natural Deserts 208
Types of Mass Wasting 173 Desertification 208
S U M M A R Y 210
Falls 173
K E Y T E R M S A N D C O N C E P T S 210
Slumps and Slides 174 E X E R C I S E S 210
Flows and Avalanches 175

Consequences of Mass Movements

Impact of Human Activities 175
175
CHAPTER
CHA 10
A Compounding of Problems: The Venezuelan Coast 178 Climate—Past, Present,
Possible Preventive Measures 179 and Future 211
Slope Stabilization 180
Recognizing the Hazards 182 Major Controls on Global Climate;
The Greenhouse Effect 212
Landslide Warnings? 185
 Case Study 8 The Vaiont Dam—Reservoirs and Landslides 188 Climate and Ice Revisited 213
S U M M A R Y 19 0 The Hidden Ice: Permafrost 214
K E Y T E R M S A N D C O N C E P T S 19 0
E X E R C I S E S 19 0 Oceans and Climate 214
The Thermohaline Circulation 216

CHAPTER
CHA 9 El Niño 216

Other Aspects of Global Change 219

Ice and Glaciers, Wind Evidence of Climates Past 221
 Case Study 10 Taking Earth’s Temperature 224
and Deserts 191
Whither for the Future? Climate Feedbacks,
Glaciers and Glacial Features 192 Predictive Uncertainty 226
Glacier Formation 192 SUMMARY 227
KEY TE RMS AND CONCE P TS 227
Types of Glaciers 193
EXERCISES 228
Movement and Change of Glaciers 193
Glacial Erosion and Deposition 195

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SECTION IV RESOURCES

CHAPTER
CHA 11 CHAPTER
CHA 12
Ground Water and Water Weathering, Erosion, and
Resources 229 Soil Resources 258
Soil Formation 259
Fluid Storage and Mobility: Porosity and
Permeability 230 Soil-Forming Processes: Weathering 259
Subsurface Waters 231 Soil Profiles, Soil Horizons 261

Aquifer Geometry and Groundwater Flow 232 Chemical and Physical Properties of Soils 263
Confined and Unconfined Aquifers 232 Color, Texture, and Structure of Soils 263
Darcy’s Law and Groundwater Flow 233 Soil Classification 264
Other Factors in Water Availability 233 Soils and Human Activities 266
Consequences of Groundwater Withdrawal 234 Lateritic Soil 266
Lowering the Water Table 234 Wetland Soils 267
Compaction and Surface Subsidence 235 Soil Erosion 267
Saltwater Intrusion 236 Soil Erosion versus Soil Formation 271
Strategies for Reducing Erosion 272
Impacts of Urbanization on Groundwater
Recharge 237  Case Study 12.1 Plantations in Paradise: Unintended
Consequences 275
Karst and Sinkholes 239 Irrigation and Soil Chemistry 276
Water Quality 241 The Soil Resource—The Global View 276
Measures of Water Quality 241  Case Study 12.2 Soils and Suspects 278
 Case Study 11 What’s in the Water? 242 SUMMARY 278
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS 279
Hard Water 243 EXERCISES 279

Water Use, Water Supply 244

General U.S. Water Use 244
Regional Variations in Water Use 246
CHAPTER
CHA 13
Case Studies in Water Consumption 248 N Mineral and Rock
1 km

The Colorado River Basin 249

Resources 280
The High Plains (Ogallala) Aquifer System 251
The Aral Sea 252 Resources, Reserves, and Ore Deposits 281
Lake Chad 252 Types of Mineral Deposits 282
Extending the Water Supply 253 Igneous Rocks and Magmatic Deposits 282

Conservation 253 Hydrothermal Ores 284

Interbasin Water Transfer 254 Sedimentary Deposits 285

Desalination 255 Other Low-Temperature Ore-Forming Processes 286

SUMMARY 256 Metamorphic Deposits 288
K E Y TE R MS AN D CO NCE P TS 257
E XE RCISES 257

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Mineral and Rock Resources—Examples 288 Environmental Impacts of Coal Use 327
Metals 288 Gases 327
Nonmetallic Minerals 288 Ash 328
Rock Resources 289 Coal-Mining Hazards and Environmental Impacts 328

Mineral Supply and Demand 289 Oil Shale 330

U.S. Mineral Production and Consumption 290 Oil Sand 331
World Mineral Supply and Demand 291 SUMMARY 332
KE Y TE RMS AND CONCE P TS 332
Minerals for the Future: Some Options E XE RCISES 332
Considered 293
 Case Study 13.1 The Not-So-Rare Rare Earths 294
New Methods in Mineral Exploration 294 CHAPTER
CHA 15
Marine Mineral Resources 298
Conservation of Mineral Resources 298 Energy Resources—
 Case Study 13.2 Mining Your Cell Phone? 300
Alternative Sources 334
Impacts of Mining-Related Activities 301
SUMMARY 305 Nuclear Power—Fission 336
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS 305 Fission—Basic Principles 336
EXERCISES 305
The Geology of Uranium Deposits 337
Extending the Nuclear Fuel Supply 337

CHAPTER
CHA 14 Concerns Related to Nuclear Reactor Safety 338
Concerns Related to Fuel and Waste Handling 339
Energy Resources— Risk Assessment, Risk Projection 339
 Case Study 15.1 A Tale of Two Disasters:
Fossil Fuels 307 Chernobyl and Fukushima 340

Formation of Oil and Natural Gas Deposits 309 Nuclear Power—Fusion 344
Supply and Demand for Oil and Natural Gas 311 Solar Energy 344
Oil 312 Solar Heating 345
 Case Study 14.1 The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: To Drill Solar Electricity 346
or Not to Drill? 314
Geothermal Energy 348
Natural Gas 316
Traditional Geothermal Energy Uses 349
Future Prospects for Oil and Gas 317
Alternative Geothermal Sources 351
Enhanced Oil Recovery 318
Unconventional Natural Gas Sources 318 Hydropower 352
Conservation 319 Limitations on Hydropower Development 352

Oil Spills 320 Energy from the Oceans 354

 Case Study 14.2 Energy Prices, Energy Choices 322 Wind Energy 355
Coal 325  Case Study 15.2 Electricity’s Hidden Energy Costs 358
Formation of Coal Deposits 325 Biofuels 360
Coal Reserves and Resources 325 Waste-Derived Fuels 360
Limitations on Coal Use 325 Alcohol Fuels 360
S U M M A R Y 3 61
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS 362
EXERCISES 362

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SECTION V WASTE DISPOSAL, POLLUTION, AND HEALTH

CHAPTER
CHA 16 CHAPTER
CHA 17
Waste Disposal 364 Water Pollution 396
Solid Wastes—General 365 General Principles 397
Municipal Waste Disposal 365 Geochemical Cycles 397
Sanitary Landfills 366 Residence Time 397
Incineration 368 Residence Time and Pollution 398
Ocean Dumping 370 Trace Elements, Pollution, and Health 399
Point and Nonpoint Pollution Sources 400
Reducing Solid-Waste Volume 371
Handling (Nontoxic) Organic Matter 371 Organic Matter 400
Recycling 372 Biochemical Oxygen Demand 401
Other Options 373 Eutrophication 402

Toxic-Waste Disposal 376 Industrial Pollution 403

 Case Study 16.1 Decisions, Decisions . . . 377 Inorganic Pollutants—Metals 403
Secure Landfills 378 Other Inorganic Pollutants 407
Deep-Well Disposal 378  Case Study 17.1 Lessons from Minamata 408
Other Strategies 379 Organic Compounds 409
Problems of Control 410
Sewage Treatment 379
 Case Study 17.2 The Long Shadow of DDT 411
Septic Systems 379
Thermal Pollution 412
Municipal Sewage Treatment 381
Agricultural Pollution 412
Radioactive Wastes 383
Fertilizers and Organic Waste 412
Radioactive Decay 383
Sediment Pollution 414
Effects of Radiation 383
Pesticides 415
 Case Study 16.2 The Ghost of Toxins Past: Superfund 384
Nature of Radioactive Wastes 386 Reversing the Damage—Surface Water 416
Historical Suggestions: Space, Ice, and Plate Tectonics 387 Groundwater Pollution 417
Seabed Disposal 389 The Surface–Ground Water Connection Explored 417
Bedrock Caverns for Liquid Waste 389 Tracing Pollution’s Path 420
Bedrock Disposal of Solid High-Level Wastes 389 Reversing the Damage—Ground Water 421
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP): A Model? 390 Decontamination After Extraction 421
The Long Road to Yucca Mountain: A Dead End? 390 In Situ Decontamination 421
No High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Yet 393 Damage Control by Containment—The Rocky Mountain
SUMMARY 394 Arsenal 421
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS 395
EXERCISES 395 New Technology Meets Problems from the Past:
California Gulch Superfund Site, Leadville,
Colorado 423
SUMMARY 425
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS 425
EXERCISES 425

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 Case Study 18 Indoor Air Pollution? 440

CHAPTER
CHA 18 Acid Rain 442
Air Pollution 427 Regional Variations in Rainfall Acidity and Impacts 443

Air Pollution and Weather 444

Atmospheric Chemistry—Cycles and Residence
Thermal Inversion 444
Times 428
Impact on Weather 446
Types and Sources of Air Pollution 429
Particulates 429 Toward Air-Pollution Control 446
Carbon Gases 429 Air-Quality Standards 446
Sulfur Gases 431 Control Methods 446
Nitrogen Gases and “Smog Ozone” 433 Automobile Emissions 449
The Ozone Layer and Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) 433 Carbon Sequestration 449
S U M M A R Y 4 51
Lead 435
K E Y T E R M S A N D C O N C E P T S 4 51
Other Pollutants 438 E X E R C I S E S 4 51

SECTION VI OTHER RELATED TOPICS

Cost-Benefit Analysis 466
CHAPTER
CHA 19 Problems of Quantification 466
Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Federal Government 466
Environmental Law
Laws Relating to Geologic Hazards 467
and Policy 452 Construction Controls 467
Resource Law: Water 453 Other Responses to Earthquake Hazards 468
Surface-Water Law 453 Flood Hazards, Flood Insurance 469
Groundwater Law 453 Problems with Geologic-Hazard Mitigation Laws 470
Resource Law: Minerals and Fuels 454 The National Environmental Policy Act (1969) 470
Mineral Rights 454  Case Study 19 A Tale of Two Pipelines 472
S U M M A R Y 4 74
Mine Reclamation 455
K E Y T E R M S A N D C O N C E P T S 4 74
International Resource Disputes 456 E X E R C I S E S 4 74

Law of the Sea and Exclusive Economic Zones 456

Antarctica 458
CHAPTER
CHA 20
Pollution and Its Control 458
Water Pollution 458 Land-Use Planning
Air Pollution 458 and Engineering Geology 476
Waste Disposal 461
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 462 Land-Use Planning—Why? 477
Defining Limits of Pollution 462 Land-Use Options 478
International Initiatives 463

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The Federal Government and Land-Use Arranging Events in Order A-1

Planning 480 Correlation A-2
Maps as a Planning Tool 480 Uniformitarianism A-3
 Case Study 20.1 How Green Is My—Golf Course? 484 How Old Is the Earth? A-4
Engineering Geology—Some Considerations 486 Early Efforts A-4
Testing and Scale Modeling 490 Nineteenth-Century Views A-5
Case Histories, Old and New 490 Radiometric Dating A-5
The Leaning Tower of Pisa 491 Radioactive Decay and Dating A-5
The Panama Canal 491 Choice of an Isotopic System A-5
Boston’s “Big Dig” 493 Radiometric and Relative Ages Combined A-6
Dams, Failures, and Consequences 493 The Geologic Time Scale A-6
The St. Francis Dam 494 Geologic Process Rates A-7
Other Examples and Construction Issues 494 SUMMARY A8
 Case Study 20.2 Three Gorges Dam (It’s Not Only KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS A8
About Safety) 496
SUMMARY 499 Appendix B
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS 499
EXERCISES 500 Mineral and Rock Identification B-1
Mineral Identification B-1
Appendix A A Note on Mineral Formulas B-1
Geologic Time, Geologic Process
Rock Identification B-1
Rates A-1
Introduction A-1 G LO SS A RY G 1
Relative Dating A-1 I N D E X I 1

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SEC TION I | FOUNDATIONS

Planet and Population:

An Overview

A bout five billion years ago, out of a swirling mass of gas
and dust, evolved a system of varied planets hurtling
around a nuclear-powered star—our solar system. One of
these planets, and one only, gave rise to complex life-forms.
Over time, a tremendous diversity of life-forms and ecological
systems developed, while the planet, too, evolved and
changed, its interior churning, its landmasses shifting, its sur-
face constantly being reshaped. Within the last several million
years, the diversity of life on earth has included humans, in-
creasingly competing for space and survival on the planet’s
surface. With the control over one’s surroundings made possi-
ble by the combination of intelligence and manual dexterity,
humans have found most of the land on the planet inhabit-
able; they have learned to use not only plant and animal re-
sources, but minerals, fuels, and other geologic materials; in
CHAPTER 1
some respects, humans have even learned to modify natural
processes that inconvenience or threaten them. As we have
learned how to study our planet in systematic ways, we have
developed an ever-increasing understanding of the complex
nature of the processes shaping, and the problems posed by,
our geological environment. Environmental geology ex-
plores the many and varied interactions between humans and
that geologic environment.
As the human population grows, it becomes increasingly
difficult for that population to survive on the resources and land
remaining, to avoid those hazards that cannot be controlled,
and to refrain from making irreversible and undesirable changes
in environmental systems. The urgency of perfecting our under-
standing, not only of natural processes but also of our impact
on the planet, is becoming more and more apparent, and has

Geology provides the ground we live on, the soil in which our crops are grown, many of our resources, and often, striking scenery. Here, the
Orange River provides vital irrigation water for growing grapes in arid Namibia. The river also carves the landscape and carries sediment away.
Image by Jesse Allen, using data from NASA’s EO-1 team and the U.S. Geological Survey; courtesy NASA.

1
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motivated increased international cooperation and dialogue on
environmental issues.
In 1992, more than 170 nations came together in Rio de
Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, to address such issues as global climate change,
Earth in Space and Time
The Early Solar System
In recent decades, scientists have been able to construct an ever-
clearer picture of the origins of the solar system and, before
that, of the universe itself. Most astronomers now accept some
sort of “Big Bang” as the origin of today’s universe. Just before
it occurred, all matter and energy would have been compressed
into an enormously dense, hot volume a few millimeters (much
less than an inch) across. Then everything was flung violently
apart across an ever-larger volume of space. The time of the Big
Bang can be estimated in several ways. Perhaps the most direct
is the back-calculation of the universe’s expansion to its appar-
ent beginning. Other methods depend on astrophysical models
of creation of the elements or the rate of evolution of different
types of stars. Most age estimates overlap in the range of 12 to
14 billion years.
Stars formed from the debris of the Big Bang, as locally
high concentrations of mass were collected together by gravity,
and some became large and dense enough that energy-releasing
atomic reactions were set off deep within them. Stars are not
permanent objects. They are constantly losing energy and mass
as they burn their nuclear fuel. The mass of material that ini-
tially formed the star determines how rapidly the star burns;
Disk of gas and dust
spinning around the young sun
Dust grains
Dust grains clump
into planetesimals
Figure 1.1
Our solar system formed as dust condensed from the gaseous nebula, then clumped together to make planets.
2 Section One Foundations
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sustainable development, and environmental protection. Sub-
sequent decades have seen further conferences, and some tan-
gible progress, addressing these topics. (However, while nations
may readily agree on what the problematic issues are, agree-
ment on solutions is often much harder to achieve!)
some stars burned out billions of years ago, while others are
probably forming now from the original matter of the universe
mixed with the debris of older stars.
Our sun and its system of circling planets, including the
earth, are believed to have formed from a rotating cloud of gas
and dust (small bits of rock and metal), some of the gas debris
from older stars (figure 1.1). Most of the mass of the cloud co-
alesced to form the sun, which became a star and began to
“shine,” or release light energy, when its interior became so
dense and hot from the crushing effects of its own gravity that
nuclear reactions were triggered inside it. Meanwhile, dust con-
densed from the gases remaining in the flattened cloud disk ro-
tating around the young sun. The dust clumped into planets, the
formation of which was essentially complete over 4½ billion
years ago.
The Planets
The compositions of the planets formed depended largely on
how near they were to the hot sun. The planets formed nearest
to the sun contained mainly metallic iron and a few minerals
with very high melting temperatures, with little water or gas.
Somewhat farther out, where temperatures were lower, the de-
veloping planets incorporated much larger amounts of lower-
temperature minerals, including some that contain water locked
Planetesimals collide
and collect into planets
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Table 1.1 Some Basic Data on the Planets
Mean Distance from Mean
Planet Sun (millions of km) Temperature (ⴗC)
Mercury 58 167
Venus 108 464
Earth 150 15
Mars 228 65
Jupiter 778 110
Saturn 1427 140
Uranus 2870 195
Neptune 4479 200
Source: Data from NASA.
*No other planets have been extensively sampled to determine their compositions directly, though we have some data on their surfaces. Their approximate bulk compositions are inferred from the assumed
starting composition of the solar nebula and the planets’ densities. For example, the higher densities of the inner planets reflect a significant iron content and relatively little gas.
within their crystal structures. (This later made it possible for
the earth to have liquid water at its surface.) Still farther from
the sun, temperatures were so low that nearly all of the materi-
als in the original gas cloud condensed—even materials like
methane and ammonia, which are gases at normal earth surface
temperatures and pressures.
The result was a series of planets with a variety of com-
positions, most quite different from that of earth. This is con-
firmed by observations and measurements of the planets. For
example, the planetary densities listed in table 1.1 are consistent
with a higher metal and rock content in the four planets closest
to the sun and a much larger proportion of ice and gas in the
planets farther from the sun (see also figure 1.2). These differ-
ences should be kept in mind when it is proposed that other
planets could be mined for needed minerals. Both the basic
chemistry of these other bodies and the kinds of ore-forming or
other resource-forming processes that might occur on them
would differ considerably from those on earth, and may not
have led to products we would find useful. (This is leaving aside
any questions of the economics or technical practicability of
such mining activities!) In addition, our principal current en-
ergy sources required living organisms to form, and so far, no
such life-forms have been found on other planets or moons.
Venus—close to Earth in space, similar in size and density—
shows marked differences: Its dense, cloudy atmosphere is
thick with carbon dioxide, producing planetary surface tem-
peratures hot enough to melt lead through runaway greenhouse-
effect heating (see chapter 10). Mars would likewise be
inhospitable: It is very cold, and we could not breathe its atmo-
sphere. Though its surface features indicate the presence of liq-
uid water in its past, there is none now, and only small amounts
of water ice have been found. There is not so much as a blade of
grass for vegetation; the brief flurry of excitement over possible
evidence of life on Mars referred only to fossil microorganisms,
and more-intensive investigations suggested that the tiny struc-
tures in question likely are inorganic, though the search for
Martian microbes continues.
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Equatorial Diameter, Density*
Relative to Earth (g/cu. cm)
0.38 5.4
0.95 5.2 Predominantly rocky/metal
1.00 5.5 planets
0.53 3.9
11.19 1.3
9.41 0.7
Gaseous planets
4.06 1.3
3.88 1.6
Earth, Then and Now
The earth has changed continuously since its formation, under-
going some particularly profound changes in its early history.
The early earth was very different from what it is today, lacking
the modern oceans and atmosphere and having a much different
surface from its present one, probably more closely resembling
the barren, cratered surface of the moon. Like other planets,
Earth was formed by accretion, as gravity collected together the
solid bits that had condensed from the solar nebula. Some water
may have been contributed by gravitational capture of icy com-
ets, though recent analyses of modern comets do not suggest
that this was a major water source. The planet was heated by the
impact of the colliding dust particles and meteorites as they
came together to form the earth, and by the energy release from
decay of the small amounts of several naturally radioactive ele-
ments that the earth contains. These heat sources combined to
raise the earth’s internal temperature enough that parts of it,
perhaps eventually most of it, melted, although it was probably
never molten all at once. Dense materials, like metallic iron,
would have tended to sink toward the middle of the earth. As
cooling progressed, lighter, low-density minerals crystallized
and floated out toward the surface. The eventual result was an
earth differentiated into several major compositional zones: the
central core; the surrounding mantle; and a thin crust at the
surface (see figure 1.3). The process was complete well before
4 billion years ago.
Although only the crust and a few bits of uppermost
mantle that are carried up into the crust by volcanic activity
can be sampled and analyzed directly, we nevertheless have a
good deal of information on the composition of the earth’s
interior. First, scientists can estimate from analyses of stars
the starting composition of the cloud from which the solar
system formed. Geologists can also infer aspects of the earth’s
bulk composition from analyses of certain meteorites believed
to have formed at the same time as, and under conditions sim-
ilar to, the earth. Geophysical data demonstrate that the earth’s
Chapter One Planet and Population: An Overview 3
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Figure 1.2
The planets of the solar system vary markedly in both composition
and physical properties. For example, Mercury (A), as shown in this
image from a 2008 Messenger spacecraft flyby, is rocky, iron-rich, dry,
and pockmarked with craters. Mars (B) shares many surface features
with Earth (volcanoes, canyons, dunes, slumps, stream channels, and
more), but the surface is now dry and barren; (C) a 2008 panorama
by the Mars rover Spirit. Jupiter (D) is a huge gas ball, with no solid
surface at all, and dozens of moons of ice and rock that circle it to
mimic the solar system in miniature. Note also the very different sizes
of the planets (E). The Jovian planets—named for Jupiter—are gas
giants; the terrestrial planets are more rocky, like Earth.
(A) NASA image courtesy Science Operations Center at Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory; (B) courtesy NASA; (C) image by
NASA/JPL/Cornell; (D) courtesy NSSDC Goddard Space Flight Center.

B C

5000 km
Terrestrial planets

Mercury Venus Earth Mars

50,000 km
Earth Jovian planets
for comparison

Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

D E

4 Section One Foundations

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Crust
(continents ⴝ granitic)
(ocean crust ⴝ basalt)

Mantle
(iron-rich silicates)
Continental crust
Oceanic crust

Core

here
(iron and nickel) 0 Crust

Lithosp
Uppermost mantle

Mantle
100 km

200 km
Mantle
continues
downward

Figure 1.3
A chemically differentiated earth. The core consists mostly of iron; the outer part is molten. The mantle, the largest zone, is made up primarily
of ferromagnesian silicates (see chapter 2) and, at great depths, of oxides of iron, magnesium, and silicon. The crust (not drawn to scale, but
exaggerated vertically in order to be visible at this scale) forms a thin skin around the earth. Oceanic crust, which forms the sea floor, has a
composition somewhat like that of the mantle, but is richer in silicon. Continental crust is both thicker and less dense. It rises above the
oceans and contains more light minerals rich in calcium, sodium, potassium, and aluminum. The “plates” of plate tectonics (the lithosphere)
comprise the crust and uppermost mantle. (100 km ⬇ 60 miles)

interior is zoned and also provide information on the densities

of the different layers within the earth, which further limits Most Common Chemical Elements
Table 1.2 in the Earth
their possible compositions. These and other kinds of data indi-
cate that the earth’s core is made up mostly of iron, with some W H O L E E A R T H C R U S T
nickel and a few minor elements; the outer core is molten, the
inner core solid. The mantle consists mainly of iron, magne- Weight Weight
sium, silicon, and oxygen combined in varying proportions in Element Percent Element Percent
several different minerals. The earth’s crust is much more var- Iron 32.4 Oxygen 46.6
ied in composition and very different chemically from the av- Oxygen 29.9 Silicon 27.7
erage composition of the earth (see table 1.2). Crust and Silicon 15.5 Aluminum 8.1
uppermost mantle together form a somewhat brittle shell Magnesium 14.5 Iron 5.0
around the earth. As is evident from table 1.2, many of the Sulfur 2.1 Calcium 3.6
metals we have come to prize as resources are relatively un- Nickel 2.0 Sodium 2.8
common elements in the crust. Calcium 1.6 Potassium 2.6
The heating and subsequent differentiation of the early
Aluminum 1.3 Magnesium 2.1
earth led to another important result: formation of the atmo-
(All others, total) .7 (All others, total) 1.5
sphere and oceans. Many minerals that had contained water or
gases in their crystals released them during the heating and melt-
(Compositions cited are averages of several independent estimates.)
ing, and as the earth’s surface cooled, the water could condense
to form the oceans. Without this abundant surface water, which
in the solar system is unique to earth, most life as we know it
could not exist. The oceans filled basins, while the continents, dominantly of nitrogen and carbon dioxide (the gas most com-
buoyant because of their lower-density rocks and minerals, stood monly released from volcanoes, aside from water) with minor
above the sea surface. At first, the continents were barren of life. amounts of such gases as methane, ammonia, and various sulfur
The earth’s early atmosphere was quite different from the gases. Humans could not have survived in this early atmosphere.
modern one, aside from the effects of modern pollution. The first Oxygen-breathing life of any kind could not exist before the
atmosphere had little or no free oxygen in it. It probably consisted single-celled blue-green algae appeared in large numbers to modify

Chapter One Planet and Population: An Overview 5

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Prec

Proteroz
oic
amb
rian

Archean

4.5 billion years ago

Figure 1.4
The “geologic spiral”: Important plant and animal groups appear where they first occurred in significant numbers. If earth’s whole history were
equated to a 24-hour day, modern thinking humans (Homo sapiens) would have arrived on the scene just about ten seconds ago. For another
way to look at these data, see table A.1 in appendix A.
Source: Modified after U.S. Geological Survey publication Geologic Time.

the atmosphere. Their remains are found in rocks as much as sev-
eral billion years old. They manufacture food by photosynthesis,
using sunlight for energy, consuming carbon dioxide, and releas-
ing oxygen as a by-product. In time, enough oxygen accumulated
that the atmosphere could support oxygen-breathing organisms.
Life on Earth
The rock record shows when different plant and animal
groups appeared. Some are represented schematically in
figure 1.4. The earliest creatures left very few remains be-
cause they had no hard skeletons, teeth, shells, or other hard
parts that could be preserved in rocks. The first multicelled
oxygen-breathing creatures probably developed about 1 billion
years ago, after oxygen in the atmosphere was well estab-
lished. By about 550 million years ago, marine animals with
shells had become widespread.
The development of organisms with hard parts—shells,
bones, teeth, and so on—greatly increased the number of pre-
served animal remains in the rock record; consequently, bio-
logical developments since that time are far better understood.
Dry land was still barren of large plants or animals half a bil-
lion years ago. In rocks about 500 million years old is the first
evidence of animals with backbones—the fish—and soon
thereafter, early land plants developed, before 400 million
years ago. Insects appeared approximately 300 million years
ago. Later, reptiles and amphibians moved onto the conti-
nents. The dinosaurs appeared about 200 million years ago

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and the first mammals at nearly the same time. Warm-blooded
animals took to the air with the development of birds about
150 million years ago, and by 100 million years ago, both
birds and mammals were well established.
Such information has current applications. Certain en-
ergy sources have been formed from plant or animal remains.
Knowing the times at which particular groups of organisms ap-
peared and flourished is helpful in assessing the probable
amounts of these energy sources available and in concentrating
the search for these fuels on rocks of appropriate ages.
On a timescale of billions of years, human beings have
just arrived. The most primitive human-type remains are no
more than 4 to 5 million years old, and modern, rational hu-
mans (Homo sapiens) developed only about half a million
years ago. Half a million years may sound like a long time,
and it is if compared to a single human lifetime. In a geo-
logic sense, though, it is a very short time. If we equate the
whole of earth’s history to a 24-hour day, then shelled organ-
isms appeared only about three hours ago; fish, about 2 hours
and 40 minutes ago; land plants, two hours ago; birds, about
45 minutes ago—and Homo sapiens has been around for just
the last ten seconds. Nevertheless, we humans have had an
enormous impact on the earth, at least at its surface, an im-
pact far out of proportion to the length of time we have oc-
cupied it. Our impact is likely to continue to increase rapidly
as the population does likewise.
Another complicating factor is time. The laboratory sci-
entist must work on a timescale of hours, months, years, or, at
most, decades. Natural geologic processes may take a million
or a billion years to achieve a particular result, by stages too
slow even to be detected in a human lifetime (table 1.3). This
understanding may be one of the most significant contributions
of early geoscientists: the recognition of the vast length of geo-
logic history, sometimes described as “deep time.” The qualita-
tive and quantitative tools for sorting out geologic events and
putting dates on them are outlined in appendix A. For now, it is
useful to bear in mind that the immensity of geologic time can
make it difficult to arrive at a full understanding of how geo-
logic processes operated in the past from observations made on
a human timescale. It dictates caution, too, as we try to project,
from a few years’ data on global changes associated with hu-
man activities, all of the long-range impacts we may be causing.
Also, the laboratory scientist may conduct a series of ex-
periments on the same materials, but the experiments can be
stopped and those materials examined after each stage. Over the
vast spans of geologic time, a given mass of earth material may
have been transformed a half-dozen times or more, under dif-
ferent conditions each time. The history of the rock that ulti-
mately results may be very difficult to decipher from the end
product alone.

Some Representative Geologic-

Geology, Past and Present Table 1.3 Process Rates
Two centuries ago, geology was mainly a descriptive science Occurs Over a Time Span
involving careful observation of natural processes and their Process of About This Magnitude
products. The subject has become both more quantitative and
more interdisciplinary through time. Modern geoscientists draw Rising and falling of tides 1 day
on the principles of chemistry to interpret the compositions of “Drift” of a continent by 2–3 1 year
geologic materials, apply the laws of physics to explain these centimeters (about 1 inch)
materials’ physical properties and behavior, use the biological Accumulation of energy between 10–100 years
sciences to develop an understanding of ancient life-forms, and large earthquakes on a major fault
zone
rely on engineering principles to design safe structures in the
Rebound (rising) by 1 meter of a 100 years
presence of geologic hazards. The emphasis on the “why,”
continent depressed by ice
rather than just the “what,” has also increased. sheets during the Ice Age
Flow of heat through 1 meter 1000 years
The Geologic Perspective of rock
Deposition of 1 centimeter of fine 1000–10,000 years
Geologic observations now are combined with laboratory sediment on the deep-sea floor
experiments, careful measurements, and calculations to de- Ice sheet advance and retreat 10,000–100,000 years
velop theories of how natural processes operate. Geology is during an ice age
especially challenging because of the disparity between the Life span of a small volcano 100,000 years
scientist’s laboratory and nature’s. In the research labora- Life span of a large volcanic 1–10 million years
tory, conditions of temperature and pressure, as well as the center
flow of chemicals into or out of the system under study, can Creation of an ocean basin such 100 million years
be carefully controlled. One then knows just what has gone as the Atlantic
into creating the product of the experiment. In nature, the Duration of a major 100 million years
geoscientist is often confronted only with the results of the mountain-building episode
“experiment” and must deduce the starting materials and History of life on earth Over 3 billion years
processes involved.

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Geology and the Scientific Method and modified as necessary until they accommodate all the rele-
vant observations (or are discarded when they cannot be recon-
The scientific method is a means of discovering basic scientific
ciled with new data). This broader conception of the scientific
principles. One begins with a set of observations and/or a body
method is well illustrated by the development of the theory of
of data, based on measurements of natural phenomena or on
plate tectonics, discussed in chapter 3. “Continental drift” was
experiments. One or more hypotheses are formulated to ex-
once seen as a wildly implausible idea, advanced by an eccen-
plain the observations or data. A hypothesis can take many
tric few, but in the latter half of the twentieth century, many
forms, ranging from a general conceptual framework or model
kinds of evidence were found to be explained consistently and
describing the functioning of a natural system, to a very precise
well by movement of plates—including continents—over
mathematical formula relating several kinds of numerical data.
earth’s surface. Still, the details of plate tectonics continue to be
What all hypotheses have in common is that they must all be
refined by further studies. Even a well-established theory may
susceptible to testing and, particularly, to falsification. The idea
ultimately be proved incorrect. (Plate tectonics in fact sup-
is not simply to look for evidence to support a hypothesis, but to
planted a very different theory about how mountain ranges
examine relevant evidence with the understanding that it may
form.) In the case of geology, complete rejection of an older
show the hypothesis to be wrong.
theory has most often been caused by the development of new
In the classical conception of the scientific method, one
analytical or observational techniques, which make available
uses a hypothesis to make a set of predictions. Then one devises
wholly new kinds of data that were unknown at the time the
and conducts experiments to test each hypothesis, to determine
original theory was formulated.
whether experimental results agree with predictions based on
the hypothesis. If they do, the hypothesis gains credibility. If
not, if the results are unexpected, the hypothesis must be modi- The Motivation to Find Answers
fied to account for the new data as well as the old or, perhaps, In spite of the difficulties inherent in trying to explain geologic
discarded altogether. Several cycles of modifying and retesting phenomena, the search for explanations goes on, spurred not
hypotheses may be required before a hypothesis that is consis- only by the basic quest for knowledge, but also by the practical
tent with all the observations and experiments that one can con- problems posed by geologic hazards, the need for resources,
ceive is achieved. A hypothesis that is repeatedly supported by and concerns about possible global-scale human impacts, such
new experiments advances in time to the status of a theory, a as ozone destruction and global warming.
generally accepted explanation for a set of data or observations. The hazards may create the most dramatic scenes and
Much confusion can arise from the fact that in casual headlines, the most abrupt consequences: The 1989 Loma
conversation, people often use the term theory for what might Prieta (California) earthquake caused more than $5 billion in
better be called a hypothesis, or even just an educated guess. damage; the 1995 Kobe (Japan) earthquake (figure 1.5), similar
(“So, what’s your theory?” one character in a TV mystery show in size to Loma Prieta, caused over 5200 deaths and about $100
may ask another, even when they’ve barely looked at the first billion in property damage; the 2004 Sumatran earthquake
evidence.) Thus people may assume that a scientist describing a claimed nearly 300,000 lives; the 2011 quake offshore from
theory is simply telling a plausible story to explain some data.
A scientific theory, however, is a very well-tested model with a
very substantial and convincing body of evidence that supports
it. A hypothesis may be advanced by just one individual; a the-
ory has survived the challenge of extensive testing to merit ac-
ceptance by many, often most, experts in a field. The Big Bang
theory is not just a creative idea. It accounts for the decades-old
observation that all the objects we can observe in the universe
seem to be moving apart. If it is correct, the universe’s origin
was very hot; scientists have detected the cosmic microwave
background radiation consistent with this. And astrophysicists’
calculations predict that the predominant elements that the Big
Bang would produce would be hydrogen and helium—which
indeed overwhelmingly dominate the observed composition of
our universe.
The classical scientific method is not strictly applicable to
many geologic phenomena because of the difficulty of experi-
menting with natural systems, given the time and scale consid- Figure 1.5
erations noted earlier. For example, one may be able to conduct Overturned section of Hanshin Expressway, eastern Kobe, Japan,
experiments on a single rock, but not to construct a whole vol- after 1995 earthquake. This freeway, elevated to save space, was
cano in the laboratory. In such cases, hypotheses are often tested built in the 1960s to then-current seismic design standards.
entirely through further observations or theoretical calculations Photograph by Christopher Rojahn, Applied Technology Council.

8 Section One Foundations

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Figure 1.6
Ash pours from Mount St. Helens, May 1980.
Photograph by Peter Lipman, courtesy USGS.

Honshu, Japan, killed over 15,000 people and caused an esti-

mated $300 billion in damages. The 18 May 1980 eruption of
Mount St. Helens (figure 1.6) took even the scientists monitor- Figure 1.7
ing the volcano by surprise, and the 1991 eruption of Mount
A major river like the Mississippi floods when a large part of the
Pinatubo in the Philippines not only devastated local residents area that it drains is waterlogged by more rain or snowmelt than
but caught the attention of the world through a marked decline can be carried away in the channel. Such floods—like that in
in 1992 summer temperatures. Efforts are underway to provide summer 1993, shown here drenching Jefferson City, Missouri—can
early warnings of such hazards as earthquakes, volcanic erup- be correspondingly long-lasting. Over millennia, the stream builds
tions, and landslides so as to save lives, if not property. Like- a floodplain into which the excess water naturally flows; we build
wise, improved understanding of stream dynamics and more there at our own risk.
prudent land use can together reduce the damages from flood- Photograph by Mike Wright, courtesy Missouri Department of
ing (figure 1.7), which amount in the United States to over Transportation.
$1 billion a year and the loss of dozens of lives annually. Land-
slides and other slope and ground failures (figure 1.8) take a
similar toll in property damage, which could be reduced by
more attention to slope stability and improved engineering
practices. It is not only the more dramatic hazards that are
costly: on average, the cost of structural damage from unstable
soils each year approximately equals the combined costs of
landslides, earthquakes, and flood damages in this country.
Our demand for resources of all kinds continues to grow
and so do the consequences of resource use. In the United
States, average per-capita water use is 1500 gallons per day; in
many places, groundwater supplies upon which we have come
to rely heavily are being measurably depleted. Worldwide,
water-resource disputes between nations are increasing in number.
As we mine more extensively for mineral resources, we face the
problem of how to minimize associated damage to the mined
lands (figure 1.9). The grounding of the Exxon Valdez in 1989,
dumping 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound,
Alaska, and the massive spill from the 2010 explosion of the
Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico
were reminders of the negative consequences of petroleum ex- Figure 1.8
ploration, just as the 1991 war in Kuwait, and the later invasion Slope failure on a California hillside undercuts homes.
of Iraq, were reminders of U.S. dependence on imported oil. Photograph by J. T. McGill, USGS Photo Library, Denver, CO.

Chapter One Planet and Population: An Overview 9

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Grasberg Mine
Figure 1.9
The Grasberg Mine in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, is one of the world’s
largest gold- and copper-mining operations. The surface pit is
nearly 4 km (2½ miles) across; note the sharp contrast with
surrounding topography. Slopes oversteepened by mining have
produced deadly landslides, and local residents worry about
copper and acid contamination in runoff water.
Image courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory,
NASA Johnson Space Center.
As we consume more resources, we create more waste.
In the United States, total waste generation is estimated at
close to 300 million tons per year—or more than a ton per
person. Careless waste disposal, in turn, leads to pollution.
The Environmental Protection Agency continues to identify
toxic-waste disposal sites in urgent need of cleanup; by 2000,
over 1500 so-called priority sites had been identified. Cleanup
costs per site have risen to over $30 million, and the projected
total costs to remediate these sites alone is over $1 trillion. As
fossil fuels are burned, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rises,
and modelers of global climate strive to understand what that
may do to global temperatures, weather, and agriculture de-
cades in the future.
These are just a few of the kinds of issues that geologists
play a key role in addressing.
Wheels Within Wheels:
Earth Cycles and Systems
The earth is a dynamic, constantly changing planet—its crust
shifting to build mountains; lava spewing out of its warm in-
terior; ice and water and windblown sand and gravity reshap-
ing its surface, over and over. Some changes proceed in one
direction only: for example, the earth has been cooling pro-
gressively since its formation, though considerable heat re-
mains in its interior. Many of the processes, however, are
cyclic in nature.
10 Section One Foundations
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Figure 1.10
Bit by bit, lava flows like this one on Kilauea have built the Hawaiian
Islands.
Consider, for example, such basic materials as water or
rocks. Streams drain into oceans and would soon run dry if not
replenished; but water evaporates from oceans, to make the rain
and snow that feed the streams to keep them flowing. This de-
scribes just a part of the hydrologic (water) cycle, explored more
fully in chapters 6 and 11. Rocks, despite their appearance of
permanence in the short term of a human life, participate in the
rock cycle (chapters 2 and 3). The kinds of evolutionary paths
rocks may follow through this cycle are many, but consider this
illustration: A volcano’s lava (figure 1.10) hardens into rock; the
rock is weathered into sand and dissolved chemicals; the debris,
deposited in an ocean basin, is solidified into a new rock of quite
different type; and some of that new rock may be carried into the
mantle via plate tectonics, to be melted into a new lava. The time
frame over which this process occurs is generally much longer
than that over which water cycles through atmosphere and
oceans, but the principle is similar. The Appalachian or Rocky
Mountains as we see them today are not as they formed, tens or
hundreds of millions of years ago; they are much eroded from
their original height by water and ice, and, in turn, contain rocks
formed in water-filled basins and deserts from material eroded
from more-ancient mountains before them (figure 1.11).
Chemicals, too, cycle through the environment. The car-
bon dioxide that we exhale into the atmosphere is taken up by
plants through photosynthesis, and when we eat those plants for
food energy, we release CO2 again. The same exhaled CO2 may
also dissolve in rainwater to make carbonic acid that dissolves
continental rock; the weathering products may wash into the
ocean, where dissolved carbonate then contributes to the forma-
tion of carbonate shells and carbonate rocks in the ocean basins;
those rocks may later be exposed and weathered by rain, releas-
ing CO2 back into the atmosphere or dissolved carbonate into
streams that carry it back to the ocean. The cycling of chemicals
and materials in the environment may be complex, as we will
see in later chapters.
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A B
Figure 1.11
Rocks tell a story of constant change. (A) The folds of the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma formed deep in the crust when Africa and North
America converged hundreds of millions of years ago; now they are eroding and crosscut by rivers. (B) The sandstones of Zion National Park pre-
serve ancient windswept dunes, made of sand eroded from older rocks, deeply buried and solidified into new rock, then uplifted to erode again.
(A) Image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon using data provided by NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and the U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.

Furthermore, these processes and cycles are often interre-
lated, and seemingly local actions can have distant consequences.
We dam a river to create a reservoir as a source of irrigation water
and hydroelectric power, inadvertently trapping stream-borne sedi-
ment at the same time; downstream, patterns of erosion and depo-
sition in the stream channel change, and at the coast, where the
stream pours into the ocean, coastal erosion of beaches increases
because a part of their sediment supply, from the stream, has been
cut off. The volcano that erupts the lava to make the volcanic rock
also releases water vapor into the atmosphere, and sulfur-rich gases
and dust that influence the amount of sunlight reaching earth’s
surface to heat it, which, in turn, can alter the extent of evaporation
and resultant rainfall, which will affect the intensity of landscape
erosion and weathering of rocks by water. . . . So although we di-
vide the great variety and complexity of geologic processes and
phenomena into more manageable, chapter-sized units for pur-
poses of discussion, it is important to keep such interrelationships
in mind. And superimposed on, influenced by, and subject to all
these natural processes are humans and human activities.
they can adapt. Predators, accidents, and disease take a toll. If
the population grows too large, disease and competition for
food are particularly likely to cut it back to sustainable levels.
The human population grew relatively slowly for hun-
dreds of thousands of years. Not until the middle of the nine-
teenth century did the world population reach 1 billion. However,
by then, a number of factors had combined to accelerate the rate
of population increase. The second, third, and fourth billion
were reached far more quickly; the world population is now
over 7 billion and is expected to rise to over 9 billion by 2050
(figure 1.12).
Humans are no longer constrained to live only where con-
ditions are ideal. We can build habitable quarters even in ex-
treme climates, using heaters or air conditioners to bring the
temperature to a level we can tolerate. In addition, people need
not live where food can be grown or harvested or where there is
abundant fresh water: The food and water can be transported,
instead, to where the people choose to live.

Growth Rates: Causes and Consequences

Nature and Rate of
Population Growth
Animal populations, as well as primitive human populations,
are generally quite limited both in the areas that they can oc-
cupy and in the extent to which they can grow. They must live
near food and water sources. The climate must be one to which
Population growth occurs when new individuals are added to the
population faster than existing individuals are removed from it.
On a global scale, the population increases when its birthrate
exceeds its death rate. In assessing an individual nation’s or re-
gion’s rate of population change, immigration and emigration
must also be taken into account. Improvements in nutrition and
health care typically increase life expectancies, decrease mortal-
ity rates, and thus increase the rate of population growth.

Chapter One Planet and Population: An Overview 11

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Population (billions)
10

8
India
7

6 China

5
Africa
4

3
Other less developed countries
2

1
More developed countries
0
1950 1970 1990 2010 2030 2050

Figure 1.12
World population, currently over 7 billion, is projected to reach over 9 billion by 2050. Most of that population increase will occur in less-developed
countries. It is important to realize, too, that in some large developing nations (notably China and India) the middle class is growing very rapidly,
which has serious implications for resource demand, as will be explored in later chapters.
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2007). World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision,
Highlights, Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP. 202.

Increased use of birth-control or family-planning methods re-
duces birthrates and, therefore, also reduces the rate of popula-
tion growth; in fact, a population can begin to decrease if
birthrates are severely restricted.
The sharply rising rate of population growth over the past
few centuries can be viewed another way. It took until about a.d.
1830 for the world’s population to reach 1 billion. The population
climbed to 2 billion in the next 130 years, and to 3 billion in just
30 more years, as ever more people contributed to the population
growth and individuals lived longer. The last billion people have
been added to the world’s population in just a dozen years.
There are wide differences in growth rates among re-
gions (table 1.4; figures 1.12 and 1.13). The reasons for this
are many. Religious or social values may cause larger or
smaller families to be regarded as desirable in particular re-
gions or cultures. High levels of economic development are
commonly associated with reduced rates of population growth;
conversely, low levels of development are often associated
with rapid population growth. The impact of improved educa-
tion, which may accompany economic development, can vary:
It may lead to better nutrition, prenatal and child care, and
thus to increased growth rates, but it may also lead to in-
creased or more effective practice of family-planning meth-
ods, thereby reducing growth rates.
A few governments of nations with large and rapidly
growing populations have considered encouraging or mandating

Table 1.4 World and Regional Population Growth and Projections (in millions)

North Latin America

Year World America and Caribbean Africa Europe Asia Oceania

1950 2520 172 167 221 547 1402 13

Mid-2011 6987 346 596 1051 740 4216 37
2050 (projected) 9587 470 746 2300 725 5284 62
Growth rate (%/year) 1.2 0.5 1.2 2.4 0 1.1 1.2
Doubling time (years) 58 140 58 29 * 64 58

*Not applicable; population declining.

Source: United Nations World Population Estimates and Projections (1950 data; http://www.popin.org/pop1998/) and 2011 World Population Data Sheet, Population Reference Bureau, 2011.

12 Section One Foundations

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Latin
America
and North
Caribbean America
(8.5%) (5.0%)
Europe
Africa
(10.6%)
(15.0%)
Oceania
(0.5%)
Asia
(60.3%)
Asia
(55.1%)
2011 world population
6,987,000,000 (est.)
Figure 1.13
Population distribution by region in mid-2011 with projections to the year 2050. Size of circle reflects relative total population. The most
dramatic changes in proportion are the relative growth of the population of Africa and decline of population in Europe. Data from table 1.4.
family planning. India and the People’s Republic of China have
taken active measures, with varying results: China’s population
growth rate is just 0.5% per year, but India’s remains a relatively
high 1.5% per year. At those rates, the population of India will
surpass that of China by 2020, at which time both countries’
populations will exceed 1.4 billion.
A relatively new factor that strongly affects population
growth in some less-developed nations is AIDS. In more-
developed countries, typically less than one-half of 1% of the
population aged 15 to 49 is afflicted; the prevalence in some
African nations is over 20%. In Swaziland, where AIDS preva-
lence in this age group is about 26%, life expectancy is down to
49 years (world average life expectancy is 70 years). How pop-
ulation in such countries will change over time depends greatly
on how effectively the AIDS epidemic is controlled.
Even when the population growth rate is constant, the
number of individuals added per unit of time increases over
time. This is called exponential growth, a concept to which we
will return when discussing resources in Section IV. The effect
of exponential growth is similar to interest compounding. If one
invests $100 at 10% per year and withdraws the interest each
year, one earns $10/year, and after 10 years, one has collected
$100 in interest. If one invests $100 at 10% per year, com-
pounded annually, then, after one year, $10 interest is credited,
for a new balance of $110. But if the interest is not withdrawn,
then at the end of the second year, the interest is $11 (10% of
$110), and the new balance is $121. By the end of the tenth year
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Latin
America
and
Caribbean
(7.8%)
North
Africa America
(24.0%) (4.9%)
Europe
(7.6%)
Oceania
(0.6%)
2050 world population
9,587,000,000
(projected)
(assuming no withdrawals), the interest for the year is $23.58,
but the interest rate has not increased. And the balance is
$259.37 so, subtracting the original investment of $100, this
means total interest of $159.37 rather than $100. Similarly with
a population of 1 million growing at 5% per year: In the first
year, 50,000 persons are added; in the tenth year, the population
grows by 77,566 persons. The result is that a graph of popula-
tion versus time steepens over time, even at a constant growth
rate. If the growth rate itself also increases, the curve rises still
more sharply.
For many mineral and fuel resources, consumption has
been growing very rapidly, even more rapidly than the popula-
tion. The effects of exponential increases in resource demand are
like the effects of exponential population growth (figure 1.14). If
demand increases by 2% per year, it will double not in 50 years,
but in 35. A demand increase of 5% per year leads to a dou-
bling in demand in 14 years and a tenfold increase in demand
in 47 years! In other words, a prediction of how soon mineral
or fuel supplies will be used up is very sensitive to the assumed
rate of change of demand. Even if population is no longer
growing exponentially, consumption of many resources is.
Growth Rate and Doubling Time
Another way to look at the rapidity of world population growth
is to consider the expected doubling time, the length of time
required for a population to double in size. Doubling time (D)
Chapter One Planet and Population: An Overview 13
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15 x
Initial
value
10 x
Figure 1.14 Initial
value
Graphical comparison of the effects of linear and ex-
ponential growth, whether on consumption of miner-
als, fuels, water, and other consumable commodities, 5x
Initial
or population. With linear growth, one adds a fixed value
percentage of the initial value each year (dashed
lines). With exponential growth, the same percent-
age increase is computed each year, but year by Initial
year the value on which that percentage is calcu- value
lated increases, so the annual increment keeps get- 0 10
ting larger.
in years may be estimated from growth rate (G), expressed in
percent per year, using the simple relationship D  70/G, which
is derived from the equation for exponential growth (see “Ex-
ploring Further” question 2 at the chapter’s end). The higher the
growth rate, the shorter the doubling time of the population (see
again table 1.4). By region, the most rapidly growing segment
of the population today is that of Africa. Its population, esti-
mated 1.05 billion in 2011, is growing at about 2.4% per year.
The largest segment of the population, that of Asia, is increas-
ing at 1.1% per year, and since the over 4 billion people there
represent well over half of the world’s total population, this
leads to a relatively high global average growth rate. Europe’s
population has begun to decline slightly, but Europe contains
only about 11% of the world’s population. Thus, the fastest
growth in general is taking place in the largest segments of the
population.
The average worldwide population growth rate is about
1.2% per year. This may sound moderate, but it corresponds to
a relatively short doubling time of about 58 years. At that, the
present population growth rate actually represents a decline
from nearly 2% per year in the mid-1960s. However, a decreas-
ing growth rate is not at all the same as a decreasing population.
Depending upon projected fertility rates, estimates of world
population in the year 2050 can vary by several billion. Using a
medium fertility rate, the Population Reference Bureau projects
a 2050 world population of almost 9.6 billion. Figure 1.13
illustrates how those people will be distributed by region, con-
sidering differential growth rates from place to place.
Even breaking the world down into regions of continental
scale masks a number of dramatic individual-country cases.
Discussion of these, and of their political, economic, and cul-
tural implications, is well beyond the scope of this chapter, but
consider the following: While the population of Europe is
nearly stable, declining only slightly overall, in many parts of
northern and eastern Europe, sharp declines are occurring. By
2050, the populations of Russia, Ukraine, and Bulgaria are
14 Section One Foundations
/207/MH01874/mon24115_disk1of1/0073524115/mon24115_pagefiles
Exponential increase
5% per year
Exponential increase
2% per year
Linear increase at 5% of
initial value per year
Linear increase at 2% of
initial value per year
Constant value
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Years
expected to drop by 12, 20, and 24 percent, respectively. Con-
versely, parts of the Middle East are experiencing explosive
population growth, with projected increases by 2050 of 44% in
Israel, 60% in Saudi Arabia, 111% in Jordan, 133% in the
Palestinian Territory, 150% in Syria, and 155% in Iraq. The
demographics differ widely between countries, too. Globally,
27% of the population is under 15, and only 8% above age 65.
But in Japan, only 13% of the population is below age 15, with
23% age 65 or older; in Afghanistan, 44% of people are under
15 and only 2% age 65 or over. Thus, different nations face dif-
ferent challenges. Where rapid population growth meets scar-
city of resources, problems arise.
Impacts of the Human Population
The problems posed by a rapidly growing world population
have historically been discussed most often in the context of
food: that is, how to produce sufficient food and distribute it
effectively to prevent the starvation of millions in overcrowded
countries or in countries with minimal agricultural develop-
ment. This is a particularly visible and immediate problem, but
it is also only one facet of the population challenge.
Farmland and Food Supply
Whether or not the earth can support 7 billion people, or 9 or
11 billion, is uncertain. In part, it depends on the quality of life,
the level of technological development, and other standards that
societies wish to maintain. Yet even when considering the most
basic factors, such as food, it is unclear just how many people
the earth can sustain. Projections about the adequacy of food
production, for example, require far more information than just
the number of people to be fed and the amount of available
land. The total arable land (land suitable for cultivation) in the
world has been estimated at 7.9 billion acres, or about 1.1 acres
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 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN