Is there a way we can modify eroding soil and harden it, turn it into concrete like consistency to help shore up some of the damage which is been done to our infrastructure? Today, much of the infrastructure in the United States is crumbling and it is not just here at home, there are challenges everywhere. Even the gigantic Three Gorges Dam in China is having significant problems. They have a terrible time with erosion, liquefaction, and it is putting that dam in jeopardy with trillions of gallons of water behind it. Since China is already flood prone, this poses a huge problem.
The same types of problems, on smaller scales are going on all over the world. As these geo-materials a road, they leave our infrastructure vulnerable. What are geomaterial? Basically soil and sediment, most of which makes up the foundation for what we build upon.
A must read book on this topic; “Erosion of Geomaterials,” edited by Stephane Bonelli, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, (2012), 369 pages, ISBN: 978-1-84821-351-7. Price $139.99
This book in the forward clearly states the challenges which humans have faced in their history, along with the potential challenges of future sea level rise in the future, remember a good part of human populations live in close proximity to the ocean, or near surface waters; lakes, streams, underground aquifers, or man-made water flow improvements;
“Soil erosion, be it internal erosion or surface erosion, is the main mechanism responsible for disorders or failures of civil engineering structures. These failures usually take place as soon as the soil, which constitutes either the entire engineering structure or only its foundation, comes in contact with water flows. The affected engineering structures are usually reservoir dams, canals, flood-protection dikes, as well as bridges, flood-protection dams, and engineering works carried out with the purpose of stabilizing coastlines.”
Now then, I’d like to take this conversation one step further and remind everyone that eventually humans will live off planet, and in doing so they will encounter some of the same challenges and problems; soil erosion. Even if that erosion doesn’t come from water, as it might come from quakes, wind, corrosive environments, or other factors we will still have to deal with it. Worse, the consequences will be even more challenging to shore up damage being done by erosion, as they may affect life-sustaining systems, structures, and jeopardize everyone in a space colony for instance.
Not only should we study some of the challenges here at home in nations around the globe, but we should take this information, knowledge, and computer modeling with us as we build human habitats around the solar system and beyond. And in doing so, maybe we can figure out a way to molecularly align molecules of soil and geomaterial, and add a little heat and pressure using frequency to assist creating a hardened soil less apt to erode? It is my sincere hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
