GEOG M109 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Effective Stress, Surface Mining, Plate Tectonics
Document Summary
Higher porosity = higher percolation = less water erosion. Landforms of the earth are the result of the interplay between internal (endogenetic) processes and surface (exogenetic) processes. Endogenetic processes: igneous activity, mountain building, and the uplift and depression of extensive areas of the surface. Exogenetic processes: driven by gravity, solar radiation, and climate, etc. The human creates landforms and modify the operation of natural geomorphological processes. The range of human impact on both forms and process is considerable. There is very few human activity, which do not directly and indirect create landforms. These indirect and inadvertent modifications of process and form are the most crucial aspect of anthropogeomorphology: landforms produced by excavation. The most important cause of excavation is mineral extraction (in particular, the strip mining produces the environmental devastating), which exceeds in quantity and intensity of all other forms of man-made land destruction. Case: coal mining in the appalachian mountain area:
