Anthropic rock is rock that is made, modified and moved by humans.
Concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...
is the most widely known example of this. 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
The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochron ...
, 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
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
. The ancient Romans developed and widely used concrete, much of which is intact today.
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
Victorians
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...
were very familiar with the durable mock-rock surface formations used in public parks, constructed of
Pulhamite and
Coade stone. 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
gigatonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...
s yearly to the atmosphere's
CO2 gas stock and, thereby affects Earth's
Greenhouse Effect
The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when energy from a planet's host star goes through the planet's atmosphere and heats the planet's surface, but greenhouse gases in the atmosphere prevent some of the heat from returning directly ...
. 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
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
's long-identified
igneous
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...
,
sedimentary
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
and
metamorphic
Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...
groups. His practical proposal for an "anthropic rocks" category recognizes the pervading spread of humankind and its industrial products.
Future
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
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...
and/or
radioactive waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...
s; the Australian researcher,
A.E. Ringwood
Alfred Edward "Ted" Ringwood FRS FAA (19 April 1930 – 12 November 1993) was an Australian experimental geophysicist and geochemist, and the 1988 recipient of the Wollaston Medal.
The mineral ringwoodite is named after him.
Early life and s ...
, developed a titanate
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
called
Synroc, his acronym for "synthetic rock". D.J. Sheppard proposed Sun-orbiting space colonies, interplanetary and interstellar spaceships ought to be manufactured of concrete. There have also been proposals for deep-diving
submarines constructed of concrete and
concrete ship Concrete ships are built of steel and ferrocement (reinforced concrete) instead of more traditional materials, such as steel or wood. The advantage of ferrocement construction is that materials are cheap and readily available, while the disadvantag ...
s.
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".
See also
*
Anthropocene
The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change.
, neither the International Commissio ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anthropic Rock
Rocks
Building materials
Artificial stone