Geoforecasting is the science of predicting the movement of
tectonic plate
Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large t ...
s and the future
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologica ...
, shape, and other geological elements of the planet.
Geoforecasting is particularly important in the siting of
depositories for radioactive materials. It also is useful in other areas with long term management issues such as
water management
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; sligh ...
.
[de Mulder, Eduardo F. J. and Cordani, Umberto G. (1999]
"Geoscience provides assets for sustainable development"
''Episodes'' 22(2): pp. 78–83, page79; archived by WebCite
WebCite was an on-demand archive site, designed to digitally preserve scientific and educationally important material on the web by taking snapshots of Internet contents as they existed at the time when a blogger or a scholar cited or quoted f ...
on 11 March 2012
Notes
External links
* http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/06-07/jan20.html CBC podcast on geoforecasting
* http://www.scotese.com/ Paleomap project
* http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070922.html Pangea Ultima: Earth in 250 Million Years?
Plate tectonics
Geological techniques
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