Student Study Guide to Accompany Environmental Geology

by Carla W. Montgomery, Steven Carey

This text is written for the non-science major wishing to fill a science elective, and assumes no prior background in geology. In this updated edition, professors from colleges and universities around the country share their research and knowledge of current, environmentally related topics with students through boxed readings, "Geologists at Work", throughout the text. Montgomery's emphasis is on the physical constraints imposed on human activities by the geologic processes that have shaped and are still shaping our natural environment. The principal aim of this book is to present the reader with a broad overview of environmental geology and the book looks at both how the earth developed into its present condition and where matters seem to be moving for the future. The book starts with some background a brief outline of earth's development to the present, and a look at one major reason why environmental problems today are so pressing--the large and rapidly growing human population. This is followed by a short discussion of the basic materials of geology--rocks and minerals--and some of their physical properties. The next several chapters treat individual processes in detail. A series of five chapters deals with water resources, soil, minerals, and energy, the rates at which they are being consumed, probable amounts remaining, and projections of future prospects. Three chapters examine the interrelated problems of air and water pollution and the strategies available for the disposal of various kinds of waste. The final few chapters deal with a more diverse assortment of subjects. Environmental problems spawn laws intended to solve them; the environmental-law chapter looks briefly at a sampling of laws related to geologic matters discussed earlier in the book, as well as at some of the problems with such laws. The land-use planning and engineering geology chapter examines geologic constraints on construction schemes and the broader issue of trying to determine the optimum use(s) for particular parcels of land. Geomedicine, a relatively new field covered in the last chapter, concerns the relationship between health and the geologic setting in which we live.

160 pages, Spiral-bound

First published September 10, 1994

About the author

Dr. Carla Montgomery received her undergraduate degree with double major in mathematics and geology from Wellesley College, her master’s degree in geology from Dartmouth College, and her Ph.D. in geochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following a postdoc at M.I.T., she joined the faculty of Northern Illinois University. Her research interests have included geochronology, high-temperature geochemistry, and Precambrian geology. She is an elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and she has received NIU's Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.

For many years, Dr. Montgomery served as associate dean of the Graduate School at NIU while continuing to teach and work as a member of the geology faculty. During that period, she was elected president of the Illinois Association of Graduate Schools and chair of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools, and was involved in programs at the state and national levels to enhance the participation of students from underrepresented groups in science, mathematics, and engineering. She subsequently returned full-time to her home department, only to be recruited for a part-time role as acting associate dean of liberal arts and sciences when a need unexpectedly arose. Though she formally retired in spring 2007, Dr. Montgomery continues to teach, work with students, and serve part-time in the dean's office.

It was at Dartmouth that she met her husband Warren, who has been immensely supportive of her many and varied activities (and who, though not a geoscientist himself, wields a mean ten-pound sledgehammer when field work calls for sampling). Together they enjoy a variety of outdoor activities – golf (walking whenever possible!), hiking, photography, skiing – and in her spare (?) time, Dr. Montgomery relaxes with needlework, plants, cooking, and singing with the DeKalb Festival Chorus.
(Biography from her publisher, McGraw-Hill)