Geology concepts and applications

¶ … Geology Means to Me chose to take a close look at slope formations on the hills that my house resides upon. In doing so, I wanted to emphasize my observation of the variables that existed on the hillside that potentially could end up resulting in a hazard or disaster to my home. The reason I am choosing this method of analysis is to see if I can make my observations serve a practical goal, specifically, the safety of my home.

A first began to think of all the things that could go wrong on a hillside. I thought of a few hazards such as flooding, earthquakes, slope collapse, and even fire as the main natural hazards that could affect the safety of my home. I took a walk down the street, crossed through a broken gate, and walked onto public property. I was now at the head of a large slope that had a large row of homes inhabiting the head of the slope for what seemed to be miles. As I stepped down into the brush, I realized that from a geological perspective, the ground was pretty solid. However, I knew sprinklers came on often in my and neighbors' back yards and so I tested the earth for how much water it could suck up before it could absorb no more.

A turned on a water hose near the gate and watched as the water swirled on the ground before me. I noticed dry leaves being washed down a small v-shaped concrete slide which I guess was placed there to channel extra water safely away. Then I made my first significant observation. The first observation is that there was truly much dry brush on the slope. I thought "what if a fire was to start in this area?" I imagined how a fire potentially could cross across the bush. The geological landscape never seems to be that simple however. I noticed how some dry grass crept under the gate of metal bars and into some of the house backyards. This would potentially be disastrous if there was a fire that came about from lightening or other causes.

A grew even more worried when my observation seeped into a deeper trancelike state. I observed how some high level trees were right outside the periphery of the backyards of the houses. This would mean that if one of the trees were to catch fire, that tree could potentially fall in the direction of the backyard of one of these homes and help spread the fire. This analysis towards fire hazards came about because of the heat of the sun at the time I was conducting my observations as well as the actual environment which looked very prone to some sort of brush fire because of the many bushes that snapped when I walked by them as well as the large amount of dry leaves on the ground.

As for the analysis of the slope strength itself, I stuck my finger in the wet ground and it did not resist as much as I thought it would. This leads me to believe that if there was a heavy enough rain that saturated the earth of the slope, the slope at the head would eventually grow heavier and cause the earth below to give way. Also, if the earth did not give way, the water would increase on the earth past the point of saturation so that there was a significant amount of run-off that would destabilize the ground below. This could manifest danger to the homes below because of rockslides or earth falls.

This analysis comes from the fact that I poked the ground and found that the earth was not as packed in or as solid as I thought it looked like at first glance. This theme that hazards seem to inherently hide themselves in nature worries me but I am glad we are able to be aware of the problem. It seems that we have to struggle to study each element of what makes an environment tick, and then to see what can go wrong. This will eventually lead us to the solutions for these problems. I know this for a fact because I myself have been motivated to question "what are other hazards that hide in nature that can potentially harm me and my residence?" I realize that the answers which eventually will lead to safeguards may potentially save thousands of people if only because others became more aware of the hazards that obviously still exist around them.