Anthropic rock

Anthropic rock is rock that is made, modified and moved by humans. Concrete is the most widely known example of this.[1] The new category has been proposed to recognise that man-made rocks are likely to last for long periods of Earth's future geological time, and will be important in humanity's long-term future.

History

Historically, anthropogenic lithogenesis is a new event or process on Earth. For millennia humans dug and built only with natural rock. Archaeologists, during 1998, reported that artificial rock was made in ancient Mesopotamia.[2] The ancient Romans developed and widely used concrete, much of which is intact today. British Victorians were very familiar with the durable mock-rock surface formations used in public parks, constructed of Pulhamite and Coade stone.[3] Concrete as we know it today dates from the development of modern cement in 1756. Worldwide, the preparation of concrete adds at least 0.2 gigatonnes yearly to the atmosphere's CO2 gas stock and, thereby affects Earth's Greenhouse Effect. In 2007, 7.5–8 cubic kilometers of concrete were created annually by humans.

Classification and theory

The US geologist James Ross Underwood, Jr. advocated a fourth class of rocks to be added to Earth and planetary materials studies which would supplement geology's long-identified igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic groups. His practical proposal for an "anthropic rocks" category recognizes the pervading spread of humankind and its industrial products.[4][5]

Future

Future macro-engineering of the Earth may involve the total envelopment of the planet with, among other materials, concrete.[6] NASA and others have offered many settlement proposals that entail the use of in-situ resources of the Moon and Mars, such as brick, by astronauts.

The relatively inert nature of rocks has been exploited in many methods to immobilize chemical and/or radioactive wastes; the Australian researcher, A.E. Ringwood, developed a titanate ceramic called Synroc, his acronym for "synthetic rock".[7] D.J. Sheppard proposed Sun-orbiting space colonies, interplanetary and interstellar spaceships ought to be manufactured of concrete.[8] There have also been proposals for deep-diving submarines constructed of concrete[9] and concrete ships.

Alan Weisman in The World Without Us (2007) noted that anthropic rocks of all kinds, among other artifacts, will exist far into our planet's future even should our species disappear "tomorrow".[10]

See also

References
  1. A. Bentur, "Cementitious Materials--Nine Millennia and a New Century: Past, Present, and Future", ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 14: 2-22 (February 2002).
  2. E.C. Stone, "From shifting silt to solid stone: the manufacture of synthetic basalt in ancient Mesopotamia", Science 280: 2091-2093 (26 June 1998).
  3. I. Freestone, "Forgotten but not lost: the secret of Coade Stone", Proceedings of the Geologist's Association 105: 141-143 (1994).
  4. James R. Underwood, Jr., "Anthropic Rocks as a Fourth Basic Class", Environmental & Engineering Geoscience VII: 104-110 (February 2001).
  5. [Cathcart, R.B., Anthropic Rock: a brief history, History of Geo- and Space Sciences, 2: 57-74 (2011)]
  6. Viorel Badescu and R.B. Cathcart, "Environmental thermodynamic limitations on global human population", International Journal of Global Energy Issues 25: 129-140 (2006).
  7. A.E. Ringwood, Safe Disposal of High-Level Nuclear Reactor Waste: A New Strategy (1978).
  8. D.J. Sheppard, "Concrete space colonies", Spaceflight 21: 3-8 (January 1979).
  9. Cohen, David (9 March 2002). "Fantastic Voyager". New Scientist: 36–39.
  10. Langford, Stephen (February 2002). "Letter to the Editor" (PDF). GSA Today: 56.
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