Pollution of the lithosphere

The Earth is our vast common house, which always wants to be cozy, but today it is in grave danger, and we, the people, are to blame for its misfortunes. Man always believed that the planet on which he lives is reliable, unlimited and immensely generous, but he could not even imagine that he could cause pollution of the lithosphere by his activities.

Today we are increasingly asking ourselves the question of how to ensure security for the Earth and for ourselves. This is especially evident in the last decades, when the actual damage is becoming more and more obvious.

It seemed earlier that the Earth will continue to exist unchanged for more than one millennium, but recently, humanity has faced such a grave problem as pollution of the lithosphere. A depressing impression is made by once-fertile lands, which are now depleted and unfit for farming.

Pollution of the lithosphere has led to the fact that some of the soils will never be used in agriculture, since it has completely lost productivity. Today such lands occupy almost 1% of the land surface.

Our time will deservedly be called a "garbage civilization". If earlier the descendants were left with castles or, at worst, destroyed fortresses for many centuries, then the heirs will receive from us heirs of household waste that have accumulated everywhere in the suburbs. This is caused by a man's thoughtless activity, his desire to make a profit at any cost.

The factors that cause pollution of the lithosphere are, first of all, industrial and agricultural waste, uncontrolled construction, huge scale mining. Mankind irrevocably destroys what is for it a source of existence. Large corporations, without ceremony, poured into the ground radioactive substances, metal oxides and pesticides. The fact that pollution of the lithosphere can cause an ecological catastrophe, from which no one can be saved, is of little interest to them. Consequences are already everywhere already flaring up in different parts of the earth.

What is the structure of the lithosphere, what do we know about it? If we consider the chemical composition of rocks that are found in the earth's crust, it is only possible to judge the depth to 15-16 km. What is happening deeper, scientists today are not yet fully understood, and they can only guess about many phenomena. The difficulty is that the lithosphere is accessible to direct research only in the areas of land.

Sometimes the concepts of "Earth's crust" and "lithosphere" are confused, but they are not identical, but simply close enough in meaning. The lithosphere is the uppermost, hardest shell of the Earth. It consists of particularly strong rocks. The thickness of it is still disputed by scientists, some call a range of 30-40 km, while others tend to believe that it is 60-70 km.

The structure of the lithosphere is as follows: the earth's crust, the upper part of the mantle, as well as mobile areas or folded belts and stable platforms. If we consider its structure under the ocean and under the continents, then it is significantly different. Under the latter it consists of layers: granite, sedimentary and basaltic, up to 80 km thick, and in the ocean from rare elements: dunites and harzburgites, its thickness in these regions is of the order of 5-10 km, and there is no granite layer at all.

Ecological functions of the lithosphere: geodynamic, geochemical and geophysical. They are conditioned, first of all, by the evolution of the development of our Earth. The first includes natural and anthropogenic processes, provides comfort and, of course, the safety of human habitation on Earth. The second and third are geochemical and geophysical fields that directly affect the state of the community of living organisms and, naturally, the human environment.

The earth is similar to the human body, any wrong interference will have undesirable consequences, and it is irresponsible and short-sighted to count only on self-regulating ecological functions of the lithosphere.