Module 1 introduction to geology

Editor's Notes

• #13: Posing
• #14: Availability: water Conflicts: water, mineral, Oil FERTILE CRESCENT (at http://leb.net/fchp/) What is the Fertile Crescent? The Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East of great world-historical significance. The Fertile Crescent gave birth to and sustained many great civilizations including those of the Assyrians, Sumerians, Canaanites, Philistines, Phoenicians/Carthaginians, Hyksos, Akkadians, Hittites, Hurrians, Mitanni, Kassites, Arameans, Amorites, Seleucids, Nabateans, Lakhmids, Ghassanids, Ummayyads, Abbasids, etc.... The Fertile Crescent is the place where agriculture and civilization first arose, the birthplace of our alphabet, the place where great religions first uplifted the souls of mankind, the home of philosophers, saints, poets, explorers and conquerors. Some of our ancestors are among the most famous names of ancient and classical history including Sargon, Hammurabi, AshurBanipal, Semiramis, Zeno the Stoic, Mani of Babylon, Berossus, Dido, Hanno, Hannibal, Julia Domna, Jonas, Europa, Pygmalian, Zenobia, Lucian, Libanius, Tatian, Nestorius, John Chrysostom, Ephraim the Syrian, Byzantine Empress Theodora, Byzantine Emperor Leo the Isaurian, at least six Emperors of the Roman Empire (Septimius Severus, Geta, Caracalla, Elagabulus, Severus Alexander and Philip the Arab) and at least five Popes (St. Anicetus, John V, St. Sergius, Sisinnius, and St. Gregory III). In later years our ancestors created the great Ummayad and Abbasid civilizations which made Damascus and Baghdad centers of world culture and learning.         Our culture, our heritage and people are still alive. In recent centuries we have become divided, disorganized and weak. But we are still capable of revival. We are eminently capable of once more creating great and powerful civilizations like those of our Abbasid and Assyrian and Phoenician and Ummayad forefathers. The key is unity and cooperation. What unites us makes us strong, what divides us makes us weak. If only we all work together as one people then our greatest days lay ahead. Where is the Fertile Crescent? The Fertile Crescent is that part of the Near East which stretches from the Taurus Mountains in the North to the arch of the Arabian Desert in the South and from the Eastern Mediterranean (known as the "Syrian Sea" in antiquity) in the West to the Zagros Mountains and the Gulf of Fao in the East. So, if you are interested in Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Kuwait, Cilicia, Ahwaz, Sinai, etc... Then... this page is for you! FERTILE CRESCENT (at http://killeenroos.com/1/mesodata.htm) Fertile Crescent Civilizations Mesopotamia, "the land between the rivers," was the ancient Greek name for the triangular area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that stretched northward from a point a little above modern Baghdad to the mountains of Armenia. In modern usage, however, in reference to antiquity, the term Mesopotamia refers to most of what is now Iraq. This broader definition--the one used here--adds to the original territory the land east of the Tigris (ancient ASSYRIA) and the lower Tigris-Euphrates Valley from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf (ancient BABYLONIA). Some parts of Mesopotamia were sparsely inhabited--and others not at all--until after about 8000 BC, when the domestication of plants and animals brought about an agricultural revolution. This key step in the development of human civilization made possible an increased food supply and an accompanying growth of population and allowed nomads and cave dwellers to become farmers and herders. People began to move down from the mountains to the grassy uplands and well-watered plains of northern Mesopotamia. By 6000 BC primitive villages stretched from Assyria along a fertile strip just below the Armenian hills to the Euphrates River and beyond. Later, about 5000 BC, the occupation of the lower valley (Babylonia) was begun by people who started at the Persian Gulf and gradually moved upriver. Because of inadequate rainfall the inhabitants of the lower valley had to resort to irrigation in order to farm the land. Irrigation required a highly organized governmental structure to mobilize and direct the efforts of the workers. At the same time, a lack of stone, wood, metals, and other commodities led the people of the southern valley to develop industry in order to produce goods that could be traded for the materials needed and to develop an extensive trade with the outside world. The southern valley's more complex economy, coupled with its more productive agriculture, induced a more sizable increase in population and brought the rise of large villages, even cities. Thus by 3100 BC civilization may be said to have begun in southern Mesopotamia, the area called SUMER. During the Sumerian period, which lasted until about 2000 BC, the Sumerians organized a system of flood control and a pattern of irrigation and created an enduring writing system (cuneiform), religious literature, architectural form, and economic organization. In the centuries after 3100 BC, Sumerian civilization was borrowed and adapted by the people of northern Mesopotamia as well as by those in the region now called Iran and by countries west of the Euphrates bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Mesopotamia, unlike Egypt, was a land open to invasion, and therefore as time passed the country came under the political domination of a succession of conquerors. These people often enriched Mesopotamian culture as they introduced their traditional beliefs, practices, and customs. However, because of environmental conditions peculiar to Mesopotamia and the existence of an already complex civilization there, these later peoples adopted Sumerian culture as the basis for their cultural innovations. During the Sumerian period Semitic-speaking tribes from the west occupied the northern part of the lower valley (AKKAD) around Babylon and set up the so-called Sargonid dynasty (c.2350-2100 BC) that briefly controlled the Sumerians in the south. More important, however, were the AMORITES, a larger Semitic group that came shortly after 2000 BC. These people, with their capital at BABYLON, established the Old Babylonian Kingdom that unified the whole valley. The Amorites were numerous enough to make their language the prevailing speech in Babylonia and to merge their culture with that of the Sumerians to create a new literature, a different political organization, advances in sculpture, and a reorganization of commercial procedures. In addition, they gave an impressive maturity to the elementary mathematics and astronomy developed by the Sumerians. About the same time that the Amorites came to Babylonia, another, related Semitic group, the Assyrians, took over the eastern part (Assyria) of northern Mesopotamia. Although they, too, borrowed from the culture of the Sumerians, they proceeded more slowly than the Amorites, and Assyrian civilization flowered at a later time. Both the Babylonians and Assyrians were in political eclipse between 1550 and 1100 BC as invaders from the north dominated their respective territories: Mitannians (see MITANNI) in Assyria and KASSITES in Babylonia. By about 1100, the Mitannian and the Kassite regimes had crumbled and disappeared without having materially affected Mesopotamian culture, and the Babylonians and Assyrians rose to new political and cultural heights. Between 745 and 612 BC the Assyrians built up and then lost a great empire that encompassed Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, with tributary nations in western Iran as well. Assyrian civilization, an elaboration of the basic Mesopotamian, was the wonder of the age. After the fall of Assyria, Babylonia under the Neo-Babylonian (or Chaldean) kings--Nabopolassar (r. c.630-605), NEBUCHADNEZZAR II (r. 605-561), and others--flourished until the Persian conquest of 539 BC. Henceforth Mesopotamia was incorporated in foreign empires: the Persian, Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanian, Arab, and Ottoman. In 1921, following World War I, Mesopotamia was constituted as the new state of Iraq under British mandate. It became independent in 1932. Ancient Mesopotamia bequeathed to the Western world a great legacy. Today we still use Assyrian words for many plants and minerals; the Babylonians were the founders of our algebra and astronomy; the sexagesimal system of the Sumerians appears in our astronomy and timekeeping (60 seconds, one minute; 60 minuts, one hour); and the Mesopotamian influence on the authors of the Old Testament is well known.
• #15: Known as the “cradle of civilization,” Mesopotamia served as the site for some of the world’s earliest settlements. Named after the Greek word meaning “between the rivers,” Mesopotamia occupied the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that now constitutes the greater part of Iraq. The Sumerian civilization, which began in the region in about 3500 bc, built a canal system and the world’s first cities.
• #17: Aral Sea (http://www.grida.no/aral/aralsea/english/arsea/arsea.htm) C entral Asia (territory is 1.7 mln. sq.km) is situated in the mid-part of Euroasia at the crossroad of ancient caravan routes between Europe and Asia, Middle and Far East and mainly coincides with the geographical borders of the Aral Sea, completely including territories of Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, a large part of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and the south of Kazakhstan. As one of the most ancient centres of world civilization, this region has vast territories of arid and semiarid zones(1 mln.sq.km) with only 5% of densely populated oases. The basin is inner water body of the dischargeless Aral Sea which was the fourth largest inland lake in the world before 1960. The dependence of the Central Asian civilization's development of water resources dates back to ancient times. Water and irrigation have always been the basis of life, the development of every living thing, and the main component of nature in the region. Click to enlarge the picture By the beginning of the 20th century, 7-8 million people lived in the region. Irrigated lands made up about 3.5 million hectares and had irrigation networks of different levels. It was the foundation of society's economic base. At present the population of the region has increased 7 times, exceeding 50 million people (54.2 million people in 1997). Irrigated lands had doubled (7.5-7.9 milllion hectares). History On the basis of geographical and archeological research it was established that the Aral Sea has had periodical changes of its water area, i.e. expansions are followed by withdrawals. This was brought about by climate change and changes in the state of the environment in the region. With the development of land use, anthropogenic factors affected the natural periods of sea fluctuations changing flows of the SyrDarya and AmuDarya. This is especially explicit in the present. The beginning of irrigated agriculture in the region dates back to the 6th-7th centuries B.C. and coincides with flourishing the most ancient civilization where irrigation was a major decisive factor of historical and socio-economic development. Today the Aral and surrounding territories are world-known for ecological disasters attributed mainly to anthropogenous factors. The growth in water consumption connected to cultivation of new irrigated territories, where mainly cotton and rice are grown, together with the increase in the population working in agriculture, the flow of water to the sea from the two major river systems -the AmuDarya and SyrDarya - completely stopped. In spite of intensive glacier melting which should have led to increase of territory of the Aral Sea, during last 25 years disastrous reduction of the largest inland water body takes place. The Aral Sea degradation The Aral Sea is the largest inland body of salty reservoirs in the world. Situated in the centre of the Central Asian deserts at an altitude of 53 metres above the sea level, the Aral Sea functions as a gigantic evaporator. About 60 km2 of water evaporates per year. The sea contributed to hydrothermal regime improvement, influenced water regimes of arid plants, pasture productivity, and provided normal functioning of artesian wells etc. Ecological balance in the basin was formed in the first half of the 20th century and was stable up to the beginning of the 1960's, with a volume of 1,064 kmі, and a water territory of 66.4 thousand kmІ. Because of irrevocable removal of river water on irrigated territories, ecological balance began to decline. Only half of the previous river runoff reached the Aral Sea. But even this quantity of water was not sufficient to support sea level at 53 m.
• #19: A strong earthquake occurred at 19:15:56 (UTC) on Monday, December 22, 2003. The magnitude 6.5 event has been located in CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. Two people killed and about 40 buildings collapsed or severely damaged at Paso Robles.At least 40 people injured in the Paso Robles-Templeton area. Buildings damaged and small firesoccurred at Cambria and Morro Bay. The airport at Oceano was closed due to cracks in the runway.More than 10,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Paso Robles area. Felt (VII) atAtascadero, Bradley, Cambria, Cayucos, Creston, Lockwood, Los Osos, Morro Bay, Nipomo, Oceano, PasoRobles, San Miguel, San Simeon, Shandon and Templeton; (VI) at Arroyo Grande, Beverly Hills, GroverBeach, Guadalupe, Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, Santa Margarita and Santa Maria; (V) at Avenal,Danville, Filmore, Inglewood, King City, Lompoc, Santa Inez, Santa Monica, Solvang, Taft and Wasco;(IV) throughout west-central California; (III) from San Francisco and Santa Rosa to Los Angeles andOceanside. Felt in much of central California and at Bullhead City, Arizona.
• #21: A strong earthquake occurred at 01:56:52 (UTC) on Friday, December 26, 2003. The magnitude 6.6 event has been located in SOUTHEASTERN IRAN. At least 30,000 people killed, 30,000 injured, 85 percent of buildings damaged or destroyed and infrastructure damaged in the Bam area. Maximum intensities IX at Bam and VIII at Baravat. Felt (V) at Kerman. Surface faulting observed on the Bam Fault between Bam and Baravat. Maximum acceleration of 0.98g recorded at Bam. A detailed report on this earthquake can be obtained from the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), online at http://www.iiees.ac.ir/English/Bam_report_english.html.
• #25: http://www.berann.com Prof. H.C. Berann, the father of the modern panorama map, is renowned throughout the world for his combining old European painting tradition with modern cartography to produce his unique panorama maps.
• #26: http://www.berann.com Prof. H.C. Berann, the father of the modern panorama map, is renowned throughout the world for his combining old European painting tradition with modern cartography to produce his unique panorama maps.