-Interview with Zhang, President of the International Union of Geosciences.
Zhang, president of the International Union of Geological Sciences, believes that the key to geological development is social demand, and now many countries are exploring new ways out. Mining demand and environment are very important to the development of geology, in which environment is a very meaningful aspect.
Zhang said that many people think that geology studies the solid earth and has little to do with the atmosphere, which is actually a misunderstanding. The past atmosphere has been completely replaced by the modern atmosphere, but the information about the history of the earth's atmosphere has been "solidified" in the crust. It is the study of geology that reveals the history of Quaternary climate, especially the details of "ice age" and "interglacial age". It is also the geological research that confirms the existence of climate cycle inferred by Serbian mathematician Milankovic. According to the theoretical calculation of 1920, Milankovic proposed that the earth's rotation swings slightly once every 22,000 years, and the earth's orbit around the sun changes once every 100000 years, and the nearly circular orbit becomes more elliptical, which makes the earth farther away from the sun. Milankovic also found that every 4 1000 years, the change of the inclination of the earth's axis will make the southern hemisphere or the northern hemisphere farther away from the sun. For more than half a century, his hypothesis has been ignored. It was not until later that people studied the types of radiolarians reflecting the surface temperature of seawater in the drill cores of seabed sediments and the rise and fall of ancient ice sheets reflected by the oxygen isotopes of foraminifera calcareous shells that evidence was found for Milankovitch hypothesis. People associate the Milankovic cycle with the recent ice age of millions of years. This issue is still controversial. Whether the general trend of the future earth's climate is warming or cooling still needs geology to provide the answer.
The study of greenhouse effect, which has attracted international attention, can not be separated from geology. Geologists found that in the early days of the birth of the earth, the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere was also high. The atmospheric environment is not suitable for the development of most organisms. Later, early organisms "solidified" most of the carbon in the atmosphere into carbonate rocks (mainly limestone and dolomite). The biggest impact of human activities on the environment is the burning of fossil fuels. Fossil fuel is essentially solar energy, which is solidified carbon accumulated by nature for tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years in geological history. Its development and release within hundreds of years can not but have a serious impact on the environment. One of the problems is more difficult to solve, and that is the emission of carbon dioxide. In recent years, people began to pay attention to the study of carbon dioxide "sequestration", in which injecting carbon dioxide into the ground is more promising. Norway started the world in 199 1. It imposed a federal tax on enterprises that emit a large amount of carbon dioxide (such as coal-fired power plants), charging $55 per ton of carbon dioxide, which was later extended to carbon dioxide emitted by offshore oil and gas production. Since 1996, Statoil has injected about 6,543.8 million tons of carbon dioxide into the underground every year, saving 55 million yuan in tax expenditure every year. Geological research involved in carbon dioxide underground perfusion includes geophysics, geochemistry, underground fluid dynamics and so on.
Zhang said that fresh water resources are also closely related to geology. Fresh water, like air, is indispensable for human survival. From the perspective of fresh water resources, the surface and underground are both fragments of the same long-flowing fresh water resources. The difference between fresh water flowing underground and fresh water flowing on the surface is not the water itself, but the medium, that is, the difference between surface water body and groundwater aquifer. Surface water has strong water conductivity, but limited water storage capacity. On the other hand, the groundwater aquifer has poor water conductivity, but strong water storage capacity. Therefore, the optimal allocation of fresh water resources can be realized by making full use of their respective advantages and avoiding weaknesses. For example, in order to alleviate the serious contradiction between supply and demand of fresh water resources in North China, the South-to-North Water Transfer Project is needed. However, if there is not enough buffer storage capacity at the end of long-distance water conveyance, it will be very troublesome if something goes wrong, and it is not feasible to build a plain reservoir. It seems that making full use of underground storage capacity is the only way out.
Zhang believes that the importance of geology in the solid crust is self-evident. All kinds of mineral resources exploration and engineering construction are inseparable from geology. Another important aspect related to geology is the prevention and control of geological disasters. In a word, human beings live on the earth, and to protect the environment, we must have a correct understanding of the earth and master geological knowledge. Geologists should make due contributions to environmental protection.
We should study the earth system from a new angle.
-Academician Liu Dongsheng talks about earth science research.
Liu Dongsheng, an academician of China Academy of Sciences, is a famous geologist and environmental geologist, who has made outstanding contributions in loess research and other fields. He thinks it is necessary to study and inspect the earth system from a new angle.
Liu Dongsheng said that from the perspective of the whole earth science community, providing resources and environmental protection for the society is the same task of geology in the future, and both cannot be neglected. I am very happy to see that the geological research and work in China has involved natural disaster prediction, natural environment investigation, agricultural soil investigation, urban environment investigation and other fields. When these works are combined with the investigation and evaluation of mineral resources in a region, it will be more comprehensive. Social development needs geology, which has great influence on society. I am very much in favor of combining geology with society. From this angle? In the future development of geology, it is necessary to study the influence of human beings on the earth's environment and realize that the role of human beings is a force that cannot be ignored for the geological environment and geological evolution. For example, the impact on global change: It is estimated that if the temperature rises by 1 Celsius, the sea level will rise by10cm, and 3/4 of the world's big cities and 40% of the population are concentrated within 60km from the coast. As for the damage and impact on the ecological environment, it is even more difficult to estimate. Some people say that the value of the ecological environment can be estimated. An Indian scholar pointed out that a 50-year-old tree has six functions: generating oxygen, absorbing toxic gases, preventing air pollution, increasing soil fertility, increasing soil moisture, and providing breeding places for birds and mammals, and its ecological benefits are $65,438+$09.6. In shennongjia national nature reserve, China, there are 500,000 trees over 50 years old. According to this calculation, based on natural resources, the ecological benefit of Shennongjia exceeds100000 USD. But now this area is still relatively poor, so we should pay more attention to such problems.
The problem of the earth's environment has become the main obstacle to the sustainable development of the global economy and society. The book Silent Spring, published in 1960s, is called the new awakening of human beings to the environment. The publication of this book not only promoted the development of environmental and humanities, but also promoted the progress of natural science. For decades, the research of environmental science has expanded from the treatment of "three wastes" to the protection of regional environment until the study of global change is considered; In terms of time, it is manifested in the analysis of modern physical and chemical biological processes, and then attempts to predict the future of human beings and this planet, and at the same time greatly improves people's understanding of the practical significance and mechanism of human-driven environmental evolution.
The earth environment is a very complex system, and the interaction between layers is extremely accurate in both time and space dimensions. Facts tell us that human activities have become an important geological pressure. Now, we need to look at today's earth system from a new angle.
There are many things to do in order to save resources.
-Academician Chen Yuchuan talks about the utilization of mineral resources.
Building a conservation-oriented society and improving the efficiency of resource utilization is gradually becoming a social consciousness. Chen Yuchuan, an academician of China Academy of Engineering and a famous mineral deposit scientist, called on people to save and make good use of non-renewable mineral resources when interviewed by reporters on the eve of Earth Day.
Chen Yuchuan said that, on the whole, China is a country rich in mineral resources, with discovered minerals 1 species and proven reserves 1 species. There are about 100 kinds of self-sufficient minerals in China, most of which are non-metallic minerals. China probably needs to use more than 20 kinds of foreign mineral resources, especially some bulk minerals and pillar minerals related to the development of national economy. Resources can't guarantee demand, such as oil and natural gas, especially oil, which is obviously not enough. China's proven iron ore reserves are 50 billion tons, with an average iron ore grade of 33%. Foreign iron ore grades generally reach 50% before mining and utilization. China's iron ore grade is low, and some of it can't be used at present, so rich iron ore is a scarce resource in China. The proven reserves of China copper mine exceed180,000 tons, accounting for about 5% of the world's reserves. The problem is that the copper mine in China is very small. There are only two world-class super-large copper mines in China: Dexing Copper Mine in Jiangxi and Yulong Copper Mine in Tibet. Dexing reserves more than 5 million tons, Yulong more than 7 million tons. If the grade of Chukicatado copper mine in Chile is 0.7%, its reserves are 654.38+ 1 100 million tons. If you circle by 0.79%, there are more than 50 million tons. This mine produced 670,000 tons of copper metal last year, and in the same year, the copper mines in China produced 580,000 tons of copper. There are some chromite ores in Tibet and Xinjiang, which are basically imported. Manganese ore dominated by manganese carbonate, with an average grade of 22%, is of poor quality and needs to be imported in large quantities. And potassium salt. As a solid mineral, potassium salt is a little bit in Yunnan. In China, it is mainly mined in salt lakes in Qinghai and Xinjiang. At present, potassium salt is mainly imported. Although China is rich in coal resources, the fine reserves available for well construction are too small, about 50 billion tons (some say 30 billion tons, others say 90 billion tons). The crux of the problem is that coal resources are wasted too much. If one mine is opened, one mine will be lost, or even more. The recovery rate of some small mines is only 15%. In short, most of China's mineral resources can be self-sufficient, but some large-scale mineral resources that affect the development of the national economy are insufficient.
Chen Yuchuan said that the only way to solve the security problem of mineral resources supply is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. Open source, first, find it in China and increase the intensity of geological exploration; The second is to use foreign resources: buy minerals, preferably futures, or organize teams to support enterprises to find and develop minerals abroad.
Chen Yuchuan said that to solve the problem of mineral resources, special attention should be paid to saving expenses, and China should give priority to saving resources, which has great space and potential. Specifically, first, we should strengthen resource management. Saving resources through management is a very important measure in China. A mine cannot be opened by several companies, otherwise it will easily lead to waste of resources and unsafe hidden dangers; Large mines should be large, not small; Prohibit indiscriminate mining and digging; To improve the access threshold, there must be requirements such as resource utilization, environmental protection and minimum mining scale.
Second, improve the recovery rate of mining and mineral processing. Take coal as an example. At present, the recovery rate of coal resources is low. The recovery rate of large state-owned mines is about 50%, that of local state-owned mines is about 30%, and that of small individual mines in villages and towns is about 15%. There are management problems as well as technical problems. It is necessary to engage in mergers, large-scale development, build large-scale coal bases, improve the technical content, and improve the mining recovery rate. Not only coal, but also other minerals need to improve the recovery rate. As long as it is well organized and managed, the problem of recovery rate is not difficult to solve.
The recovery rate of mineral processing is a scientific and technological problem. For example, China is rich in phosphate rock resources, but most of them are collophanite. Mineral processing of collophanite is a difficult problem, which has not been completely overcome in China. Another example is manganese ore, most of which is manganese carbonate in China, with fine particle size and difficult mineral processing. The same is true of iron ore. There is a kind of hematite called Ningxiang type iron ore, which is oolitic. The French have successfully solved the key problem of this kind of iron ore dressing, but China has never passed the customs, so far this kind of iron ore is basically neglected. There are many problems in this, so it is a special knowledge to carry out geological research, mineral structure analysis, internal relationship research between minerals, technological process design and mineral processing machinery manufacturing research. At present, the average recovery rate of mineral processing in metal mines in China is lower than that in foreign countries 10 ~ 20 percentage points. It is necessary to continuously improve China's mineral processing capacity and unremittingly carry out scientific and technological research.
Third, promote the comprehensive utilization of mineral resources. The comprehensive utilization of nonferrous metal mines in China is a major event. One of the characteristics of nonferrous metal mines in China is that the ore contains not only one element, but also many metal elements, such as silver, germanium, indium and cadmium in lead-zinc mines. There are many associated * * * deposits in China, of which about 1/3 are comprehensively utilized. In this 1/3 mine, the comprehensive utilization rate of resources is about 20%, while the comprehensive utilization level of foreign resources is 20 ~ 30 percentage points higher than ours. The gap between us and the advanced level is very large.
Fourth, promote the recycling of resources. This is an important measure to save resources. If scrap metal has been recycled, including steel, copper, aluminum, lead and zinc. Taking scrap steel as an example, the recycling of scrap steel in the United States accounts for 30% ~ 50% of its total steel output. China's work in this field has just started, and the scrap base is low. If the recycling rate of scrap steel reaches about 20% by 2020, and China's steel output is expected to be 300 million tons by then, the recycling of scrap steel will reach 60 million tons, which can save a lot of ore and energy and reduce environmental pollution. In addition, the utilization of mine tailings is also an important part of the recycling of mineral resources. There are more than1200 million tons of tailings in China, many of which can be reused. The utilization prospect of tailings is broad.
Chen Yuchuan said that the mineral resources provided by the earth, whether in the past or in the future, are the material basis for the survival and development of human society. In the long run, with the development of society, the demand for mineral resources will continue to increase, and the emergence of resource crisis will be a challenge for human society. Saving and using the non-renewable mineral resources provided by the earth is the unremitting goal of workers in the mineral field.
The task of earth science is to know the earth.
-Academician Li Tingdong talks about basic geological research.
Li Tingdong, an academician of China Academy of Sciences, has been engaged in basic research on regional geology and geological mapping for a long time. He believes that basic geological research plays an important role in promoting sustainable development and building a harmonious society.
Li Tingdong started with his understanding of the nature of geological work. He said that geological work is a technology-intensive industry. As a geological and mineral work, if we want to make a breakthrough in the exploration of mineral resources and make some achievements in the evaluation of geological environment and geological disasters, in the final analysis, it depends on the depth of understanding of China's geological conditions and the degree of grasp of laws by natural science experts and management experts in the geological and mineral industry. To a great extent, the geological and mineral industry is an industry that relies on science and technology to make achievements and promote development.
Li Tingdong said that a fundamental material basis for building a harmonious society is the country's economic development and people's prosperity. In this regard, the resource department has a great responsibility. In recent years, some major national projects, such as West-to-East gas transmission, South-to-North water transfer, marine resources development, Qinghai-Tibet railway, and mines to solve the crisis in the old industrial base in Northeast China, have not been represented by land and resources departments. From the exploration of mineral resources, to engineering geological exploration, engineering route selection, and then to the prevention and control of possible ecological negative effects, geological and mineral workers have participated in it and played a fundamental role. Mineral fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture, exploration, development and rational utilization of groundwater, and agricultural geology are all related to our department, and we can all play a greater role.
Li Tingdong believes that basic geological research is an important force to promote the development of geological work. Basic geological research can be divided into three categories: frontier scientific research, applied basic research and legislative research. Frontier research is exploratory, and its main task is to understand the earth and lay a foundation for the long-term development of geological science and technology, such as the evolution of the earth, the origin of life and the interaction between extraterrestrial life and the earth's circles. Applied basic research is to tackle scientific problems around some major basic geological problems according to the needs of the country and geological exploration, and provide basic geological data and scientific basis for mineral resources exploration, land and resources planning and major engineering design. Legislative scientific research is a detailed investigation and study of a certain specific scientific problem or geological event or phenomenon in a certain geological discipline, and obtains higher scientific achievements than general scientific research. Its main task is to provide examples for geological work, provide standards and scales for geological comparison and improve the overall scientific level of related fields.
Li Tingdong said that the fundamental task of geological science is to understand the earth and use this understanding to find resources and optimize the environment on which human beings depend. Every leap and theoretical innovation in geological science has greatly promoted the development of social economy. There are three great leaps in the history of geological science development. The first time occurred in the birth and early development of geological science in the second half of17th century. In medieval Europe, science, including geology, was ruled by theocracy. Since the middle of17th century, Descartes, Leibniz, Buffon and other scientific pioneers have put forward the earth theory with the evolution of the earth as the core. Since then, Lyle's Principles of Geology has established the methodology of geological realism of "talking about the past from the present", laid the foundation of geological epistemology and methodology, and determined the evolution view of the earth. The industrial revolution brought the second great leap in geological science, and established a classical geological science system with stratigraphy, mineralogy, petrology and structural geology as its main branches, which promoted the development of regional geological and mineral surveys and made great contributions to the development of global mining industry in the past century. The third Great Leap Forward in the history of geological science was a geological revolution with plate tectonics as its core, which was born in the 1960s. First of all, the proposal of plate tectonics provides a global research framework for the development of geological science, promotes the development of geological science in the direction of globalization, and establishes people's global view. Secondly, the proposal and verification of plate tectonics provide a new idea for resource and disaster prediction. For example, the in-depth study of continental margin sedimentary basins opened up a new field of oil and gas exploration, which made the world oil and gas reserves increase rapidly in the 1970 s; The study of submarine hydrothermal mineralization in mid-ocean ridges and marginal basins provides a basis for the development of marine minerals.
Li Tingdong said that the development of any discipline stems from the needs of society. Contemporary society is facing the challenges of population, resources, environment and disasters, and coordinating the relationship between man and nature has become a new starting point for human beings to understand the earth. Therefore, while exploring mineral resources, investigating and evaluating geological environment and geological disasters, strengthening basic geology and geological science and technology research and establishing a new earth science system will play an important role in scientifically understanding the earth and ensuring sustainable economic and social development.
Strengthen the study of natural disaster chain
-Academician Lv Yaoru talks about the prevention and control of geological disasters.
Lu Yaoru, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, is known as "Karst Land" because of his systematic research on the theory of karst development and his guidance on the exploration practice and research of some large-scale water conservancy and hydropower projects combined with engineering practice. In recent years, he has paid more attention to geological disasters and explored the geological-ecological environment mechanism.
He suggested that, first of all, we should strengthen the popularization of geological disaster knowledge and raise the people's awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation. The content of geological research involves all aspects of resource development and disaster prevention and reduction. As far as natural disasters are concerned, geological disasters include not only sudden geological disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, mudslides, collapses and collapses, but also gradual geological disasters such as land subsidence and desertification that are harmful. Geological disasters are an inevitable phenomenon in the evolution of the earth. It is impossible for human beings to prevent and control them all at present, but they can master the basic knowledge of the occurrence and development of geological disasters in order to take effective prevention measures or take refuge and disaster reduction actions in time to reduce losses.
Lv Yaoru believes that an emergency mechanism for forecasting, early warning and disaster reduction of natural disaster chain should be established. He said that there are climate disasters, geological disasters and biological disasters in nature. There is a disaster chain among these three disasters, such as a major disaster and a major epidemic, and climate disasters often cause greater harm by inducing landslides, mudslides and collapses. During the Indian Ocean earthquake in June 5438+February last year, the helium, argon and carbon dioxide gas in deep wells in China were abnormal from June 5438+February 24 last year. At that time, the height of groundwater ejected from the borehole reached 50 meters, and the reservoir and hot mineral water also rolled abnormally, indicating that there was a correlation effect. At present, it is difficult for human beings to take measures to avoid major floods and earthquakes, and it is also difficult to control large-scale landslides and mudslides. For these natural disasters, human beings should learn to get along with them and avoid them in time to protect their own survival and reduce the loss of life and property. It is very urgent to establish a natural disaster chain early warning and forecasting system and related emergency mechanism. This kind of early warning and prediction of natural disaster chain not only considers the harm caused by a single disaster, but also grasps the response mechanism that a disaster will lead to other disasters in a chain. The establishment of this disaster chain emergency mechanism can take emergency and refuge measures for various disasters in time. China has achieved good results in early warning of natural disasters such as storm surge, earthquake and landslide. At present, from a national perspective, the research on natural disaster chain is still very weak, and it is impossible to deeply understand the chain disastrous effects caused by related disaster chains, and it is also impossible to establish a more comprehensive rapid response mechanism.
Lv Yaoru said that it is necessary to strengthen the adaptability of engineering construction to nature and avoid inducing major geological disasters. Many large-scale engineering buildings will inevitably change the original state of nature. When carrying out large-scale engineering construction, we should pay attention to the harmony with natural conditions. On the one hand, it is necessary to prevent and avoid large-scale geological disasters caused by human factors, on the other hand, it is necessary to consider corresponding measures to enhance the coordination between engineering construction and natural conditions, especially geological environment conditions. There are many geological disasters in our country, all of which are induced by not paying attention to the corresponding prevention measures in engineering. On 200 1 May1day, an artificial high and steep slope of 0.5 million cubic meters collapsed in Wulong/KLOC, Chongqing, killing 79 people. In recent years, gas explosion and water seepage disasters have occurred in coal mines, resulting in the death of miners. Therefore, strengthening the adaptability of engineering construction to natural geological environment is a very important link in economic development, which should run through all links such as development planning and specific project implementation.
It is very important to study the natural disaster chain and the mechanism and prevention measures of various disasters. Preventing and controlling natural disasters and protecting the earth, the home of mankind, are issues that need the attention of the whole society.