The Economic Aspect of Geology Part 8

Proprietary rights and advertising have brought certain waters into use for drinking purposes which are not essentially different from more widely available waters which are not regarded as having special value.

Two springs located side by side, or a spring and a deep well, whose waters have exactly the same chemical characteristics, may be used and valued on entirely different scales. Any attempt to cla.s.sify mineral waters sold to the public in any scientific way discloses a most intricate and confused situation. One can only conclude that the popularity of certain waters is not based alone on objective qualities of composition, but rather on causes which lie in the fields of psychology and commerce.

The part played by sentiment in putting value on water is well ill.u.s.trated by the general preference for spring waters as compared with well waters. In the public mind, "spring water" denotes water of unusual purity and of more desirable mineral content than well water.

Ill.u.s.trations could be cited of districts in which the surface or spring waters have a composition not different from that of the deeper well waters, and are much more likely to be contaminated because of proximity to the surface; and yet people will pay considerable sums for the spring water in preference to the cheaply available well water.

RELATION OF GEOLOGY TO UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY

It is obvious that a knowledge of geology is helpful in locating an underground water supply. Locally the facts may become so well known empirically that the well driller is able to get satisfactory results without using anything but the crudest geologic knowledge; but in general, attention to geologic considerations tends to eliminate failures in well drilling and to insure a more certain and satisfactory water supply.

In drilling for water, it is essential to know the nature, succession, and structure of the rocks beneath the surface in order to be able to identify and correlate them from drill samples. The mere identification of samples is often sufficient to determine whether a well has been drilled far enough or too far to secure the maximum results. In order to arrive at any advance approximation of results for a given locality, a knowledge of the general geology of the entire region may be necessary.

Especially for expensive deep artesian wells it is necessary to work out the geologic possibilities well in advance. It is useless, for instance, to look for artesian water in a granite; but in an area of gently inclined strata, with alternations of porous and impervious layers, the expert may often figure with a considerable degree of certainty the depth at which a given porous stratum will be found, and the pressure under which the water will be in this particular stratum at a given point. Even the mineral content of the water may in some cases be predicted from geologic study.

One of the most obvious and immediately useful services of the geologist in most localities is the collection and preservation of well samples for purposes of identification and correlation of rock formations, and as a guide to further drilling. Failure to preserve samples has often led to useless and expensive duplication of work.

The problem of water supply in some localities is comparatively simple and easy. In other areas there is an infinite variety of geologic conditions which affect the problem, and the geologist finds it necessary to bring to bear all the scientific knowledge of any sort which can be used,--particularly knowledge in relation to the type of rock, the stratigraphy and the structure.

SURFACE WATER SUPPLIES

Where underground water is not abundant or not cheaply available, or where larger amounts of water are needed, as in large cities or for irrigation purposes, surface water is used. In general, surface waters are more likely to be contaminated by vegetable and animal matter and to require purification for drinking purposes.

Surface waters are also used for irrigation, water power, drainage, the carrying of sewage, etc. This great variety of uses brings the consideration of surface waters into many fields other than geology, but an understanding and interpretation of the geological conditions is none the less fundamental. This is evidenced by the inclusion of geologic discussions in most textbooks of hydrology, and in the reports of the Hydrographic Branch of the U. S. Geological Survey. The very fact that this important branch of governmental investigation is in a charge of the U. S. Geological Survey indicates its close relation to geology.

The principles of geology used in the study of surface waters relate chiefly to physiography (see Chapter I). It is usually necessary to know the total quant.i.ty of flow, its annual and seasonal variation, and the possible methods of equalization or concentration; the maximum quant.i.ty of flow, the variation during periods of flood, and the possibilities of reduction or control; the minimum flow and its possible modification by storage or an auxiliary supply. These questions are obviously related to the size and shape of the catchment area, the topography, the rock structure, the relation between underground flow or absorption and the runoff, and other physiographic factors. Quoting from D. W. Mead:[12]

Geological conditions are frequently of great importance in their influence on the quant.i.ty and regularity of runoff. If the geological deposits of the drainage area are highly impervious, the surface flow will receive and transmit the water into the ma.s.s only through the cracks and fissures in the rock. Pervious materials, such as sandstones, sands, gravels, and cracked or fissured rocks, induce seepage, r.e.t.a.r.d runoff, and, if such deposits are underlaid with an impervious bed, provide underground storage which impounds water away from the conditions which permit evaporation, and hence tends to increase runoff and equalize flow. On the other hand, if such pervious deposits possess other outlets outside of the stream channel and drainage area, they may result in the withdrawal of more or less of the seepage waters entirely from the ultimate flow of the stream. Coa.r.s.e sands and gravels will rapidly imbibe the rainfall into their structure. Fine and loose beds of sand also rapidly receive and transmit the rainfall unless the precipitation is exceedingly heavy under which conditions some of it may flow away on the surface.

Many of the highly pervious indurated formations receive water slowly and require a considerable time of contact in order to receive and remove the maximum amount.

In flat, pervious areas, rainfalls of a certain intensity are frequently essential to the production of any resulting stream flow. In a certain Colorado drainage area, the drainage channel is normally dry except after a rainfall of one-half inch or more. A less rainfall, except under the condition of a previously saturated area, evaporates and sinks through the soil and into the deep lying pervious sand rock under the surface which transmits it beyond the drainage area. Such results are frequently greatly obscured by the interference of other factors, such as temperature, vegetation, etc.

The natural storage of any drainage area and the possibilities of artificial storage depend princ.i.p.ally upon its topography and geology. Storage equalizes flow, although the withdrawal of precipitation by snow or ice storage in northern areas often reduces winter flow to the minimum for the year. Both surface and sub-surface storage sometimes hold the water from the streams at times when it might be advantageously used.

Storage, while essential to regulation, is not always an advantage to immediate flow conditions.

UNDERGROUND AND SURFACE WATERS IN RELATION TO EXCAVATION AND CONSTRUCTION

Scarcely more than a mention of this subject is necessary. In mining, the pumping charge is one of the great factors of cost. A forecast of the amount and flow of water to be encountered in mining is based on the geologic conditions. The same is true in excavating tunnels, ca.n.a.ls, and deep foundations. Detailed study of the amount and nature of water in the rock and soil of the Panama Ca.n.a.l has been vital to a knowledge of the cause and possibilities of prevention of slides. Rock slides in general are closely related to the amount and distribution of the water content.

The importance of ground-water as a detriment in military operations was shown during the recent war in trenching and other field works. At the outset, with the possible exception of the German army, a lack of scientific study of ground-water conditions led to much unnecessary difficulty. It soon became necessary to study and map the water conditions in great detail in advance of operations. Much of this work was done by geologists (see Chapter XIX).

Geological considerations are involved in a great variety of engineering undertakings related to river and harbor improvements, dam sites, etc., mentioned in Chapter XX.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] Mead, Daniel W., _Hydrology_: McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1919, pp. 447-448, 456.

CHAPTER VI

THE COMMON ROCKS AND SOILS AS MINERAL RESOURCES

ECONOMIC FEATURES OF THE COMMON ROCKS

Under the general heading of common rocks are included the ordinary igneous, sedimentary, and "metamorphic" rocks, and the unconsolidated clays, sands, and gravels characteristic of surface conditions, which are mined and quarried for commercial use. Soils are closely related to this group; but since they present special problems of their own, they are discussed under a separate heading at the end of the chapter. Names of the common rocks will be used with the general commercial significance given them by the United States Geological Survey in its mineral resource reports.

Because of their inexhaustible quant.i.ty and ready availability, the value of the common rock products is not large per unit of weight; but in the aggregate it ranks high among mineral products. In respect to tonnage, common rocks const.i.tute perhaps 10 per cent of the world annual output of all mineral commodities (exclusive of water).

The greater tonnage of the common rocks is used commercially in crushed or comminuted forms for road material, for railroad ballast, and for cement, brick, concrete, and flux. In blocks and structural shapes, of less aggregate tonnage, they are used as building stone, monumental stone, paving blocks, curbing, flagging, roofing, refractory stone, and for many other building and manufacturing purposes.

The common rocks are commodities in which most countries of the globe are self-sufficing. International trade in these commodities is insignificant, being confined to small quant.i.ties of materials for special purposes, or to local movements of short distances, allowed by good transportation facilities.

The common rocks are so abundant and widespread that the conservation of raw materials is not ordinarily a vital problem. Conservational principles do apply, however, to the human energy factor required for their efficient use. In the valuation of common rocks, also, the more important factors are not the intrinsic qualities of the stones, but rather the conditions of their availability for use.

Because of bulk and comparatively low intrinsic value, the princ.i.p.al commercial factors in the availability of the common rocks are transportation and ease of quarrying, but these are by no means the only factors determining availability. Their mineral and chemical composition, their texture and structure, their durability, their behavior under pressure and temperature changes, and other factors enter in to important degrees. The weighting and integration of these factors, for the purpose of reaching conclusions as to the availability of particular rock materials, depend also on the purposes for which these materials are to be used. The problem is anything but simple. The search for a particular rock to meet a certain demand within certain limits of cost is often a long and arduous one. On account of the abundance and widespread distribution of common rocks and their variety of uses, there is a good deal of popular misapprehension as to their availability. Many building and manufacturing enterprises have met disastrous checks, because of a tendency to a.s.sume availability of stone without making the fullest technical investigation. Many quarrying ventures have come to grief for the same reason. It is easy to a.s.sume that, because a granite in a certain locality is profitably quarried and used, some other granite in the same locality has equal chances. However, minor differences in structure, texture, and composition, or in costs of quarrying and transportation, may make all the difference between profit and loss. Even though all these conditions are satisfactorily met, builders and users are often so conservative that a new product finds difficulty in breaking into the market. A well-established building or ornamental stone, or a limestone used for flux, may hold the market for years in the face of compet.i.tion from equally good and cheaper supplies.

The very size of a quarry undertaking may determine its success or failure.

GRANITE

The term granite, as used commercially, includes true granite and such allied rocks as syenite and gneiss. In fact even quartzite is sometimes called granite in commerce, as in the case of the Baraboo quartzites of Wisconsin, but this is going too far. For statistical purposes, the United States Geological Survey has also included small quant.i.ties of diorite and gabbro. The princ.i.p.al uses of granite are, roughly in order of importance, for monumental stone, building stone, crushed stone, paving, curbing, riprap and rubble. Thirty states in the United States produce granite, the leaders being Vermont, Ma.s.sachusetts, North Carolina, Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California.

BASALT AND RELATED TYPES

Basalt and related rocks are sometimes included under the name "trap rock," which comprises,--besides typical basalt and diabase,--fine-grained diorite, gabbro, and other basic rocks, which are less common in occurrence and are similar in chemical and physical properties. The princ.i.p.al use of these rocks is as crushed stone for road and ballast purposes and for concrete. They are produced in some fifteen states, the leaders being New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, and Connecticut.

LIMESTONE, MARL, CHALK

In the United States limestone is used princ.i.p.ally as crushed stone for road material, railroad ballast, concrete, and cement, as fluxing stone for metallurgical purposes, and in the manufacture of lime. Minor uses are as building stones, paving blocks, curbing, flagging, rubble, and riprap; in alkali works, sugar factories, paper mills, and gla.s.s works; and for agricultural purposes. For the making of cement, in metallurgical fluxes, and in most of the manufacturing and agricultural uses, both limestone and lime (limestone with the CO_2 driven out by heating) are used. Lime is also extensively used in the making of mortar for building operations, in tanning leather, and in a great variety of chemical industries. The total quant.i.ty of limestone used for all purposes in the United States nearly equals that of iron ore. Nearly every state in the union produces limestone, but the more important producers are Pennsylvania (where a large amount is used for fluxing), Ohio, Indiana, New York, Michigan, and Illinois.

Closely a.s.sociated with limestone in commercial uses, as well as in chemical composition, is calcareous marl, which is used extensively in the manufacture of Portland cement.

Chalk is a soft amorphous substance of the same composition as limestone. The main uses of chalk are as a filler in rubber, and as a component of paint and putty. It is also used for polishing. The princ.i.p.al producers of this commodity are England, Denmark, and France, and the chief consumer is the United States. The United States depends upon imports for its supply of chalk for the manufacture of whiting.

Before the war two-thirds came from England and a third from France.

During the war importation was confined to England, with a small tonnage from Denmark. No deposits of domestic chalk have been exploited commercially. A somewhat inferior whiting, but one capable of being subst.i.tuted for chalk in most cases, is manufactured from the waste fine material of limestone and marble quarries.

MARBLE

Marble is limestone which has been coa.r.s.ely recrystallized by metamorphism. The marble of commerce includes a small quant.i.ty of serpentine as quarried and sold in Ma.s.sachusetts, California, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, and also a small amount of so-called onyx marble or travertine obtained from caves and other deposits in Kentucky and other states. The princ.i.p.al uses of marble are for building and monumental stones. Of the twenty-two states producing marble, the leaders are Vermont, Georgia, and Tennessee.