Environmental Earth Science and Medical Geology

This section includes two major parts. One is related to environmental earth science, which studies pedosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere, and their chemical, physical, and biological processes between interfaces of these spheres, investigates the pattern of geological environmental changes, develops environmental risk assessment and protection systems, explores regional environmental quality changes and prediction and response of environmental change, and reveals environmental behaviors, effects, and mechanisms of contaminants in multi-environmental compartments. The second part is related to medical geology, which examines the public health impacts of geologic materials and geologic processes. Medical geology is a dynamic discipline, bringing together the geoscience, biomedical, and public health communities to solve a wide range of environmental health problems. Among the environmental health problems that geologists and the medical community need to collaborate on include: exposure to natural dust and to radioactivity; exposure to toxic levels of trace essential and non-essential elements such as arsenic and mercury; nutrient trace element deficiencies; naturally occurring toxic organic and inorganic compounds in drinking water; identification and effects of volcanic emissions, etc.