How do minerals affect the

environment?

A Synthesis Paper submitted to

ALFIE V. ANDO, MASE

in partial fulfillment

in

Earth and Life Science

Condez, Ivy Shane D.

Minerals can be formed anywhere on earth even on earth’s surface. Its form

depends typically on the physical and chemical conditions of the surroundings or its

environment. New analysis of Hadean mineralogy challenges that assumption. Earth's

first 550 million years were when life emerged. Life originated as a result of natural

processes exploiting early Earth's raw materials. But this assumes that the mineral

species found on Earth today are much the same as they were. Rare elements such as

lithium, beryllium and molybdenum appear to have taken a billion years or more to first

appear because it is difficult to concentrate these elements sufficiently to form new

minerals. By contrast, thousands of mineral species known today are the direct result of

growth by living organisms. So those slow-forming minerals are also excluded from the

time of life's origins.

Minerals are the main source of elements needed for the development of

civilization, as well as contaminant and pollutant elements that impact global and local

ecosystems. These elements are released from minerals through natural processes,

such as chemical weathering, and anthropogenic activities such as mining and energy

production. The existence of natural, accidental, and produced nanoparticles in the

environment, which are crucial due to the fast expanding field of nanotechnology, makes

gaining this understanding much more difficult. Minerals are significant because they are

used or present in everything we use or observe in daily life, including toothpaste and

toothpaste manufacturing facilities. These are included in the food we eat in addition to

being used in the production of tangible goods. Therefore, it would be accurate to claim

that minerals are a necessary component of human life. In this research study, we will

find out the main effects of minerals in our environment and society.
 DISCUSSION

Minerals have components and factors that can greatly affect ecosystems.

Environmental mineralogy has evolved over the past decade in response to the

realization that minerals are connected to the global ecosystem in many important ways.

Minerals are the main deposits of chemical elements in the earth's crust and therefore

the main source of elements necessary for the development of civilizations, polluting and

polluting elements affecting global and local ecosystems, and elements that are

essential plant nutrients. Minerals, along with natural waters, are the major deposits of

chemical elements in nature, including impurities and contaminants. They therefore play

an important role in controlling the behavior of elements in global ecosystems.

Source: shorturl.at/kQRZ4

Based on Benjamin Houlton's (2020) article, over millions of years, the

degradation of minerals in mountains and soil removes CO2 from the atmosphere.

Rocks, mainly produced by a volcanic eruption, play an important role in maintaining

Earth's long-term climate stability and in the carbon dioxide cycle between land, ocean,

and atmosphere. Scientists have always known that rock weathering, which is a

chemical breakdown of minerals in the mountains and soil, removes carbon dioxide from

the atmosphere and transforms it into minerals that are stable on the earth's surface and

in marine sediments.
 Although there are many good factors about minerals and they are beneficial to

the ecosystem, disadvantages happen and cannot be avoided, especially if we talk

about the effects of minerals in the environment. Some minerals directly cause hazards,

more like environmental hazards, ranging from air and water pollution to contaminating

residential communities, causing disease to humans and wildlife, dirtying the wilderness

and streams, and also causing global warming. Thus, some mineral contamination is the

result of natural processes. 

Source: shorturl.at/akBT8

One of the great factor of how minerals affect the environment is mineral

extraction. The perfect of it is mineral mining. Mineral mining causes and generates

wastes containing excessive concentrations of metals and metalloids which might

be noticeably poisonous to the environment. Moreover, the ongoing use of

the conventional techniques of mining intensifies the emission of poisonous and non-

eco pleasant products.

Source: shorturl.at/tGY56
Source: shorturl.at/jnsuw
 Mineral extraction often causes imbalance in nature, in which negatively affects

the environment. The key environmental impacts of mineral mining are on:

• wildlife and fishery habitats

• the water balance

• local climates and the patterns of rainfall

• sedimentation

• the depletion of forests and;

• the disruption of ecology

These resources that people uses are not replaceable and would take many

years or decade to form. That is why it is important to know the details and how it affects

the of people in the community, most especially in the environment. Mining companies

contributed a lot in destroying the ecosystem by mining mineral resources. As mineral

resources are essential raw materials that is being used in every day lives, and are vital

in the economic, also in social and technological development of a country.

Ancient minerals: Which gave rise to life? (n.d.). ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 5,

2022, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131125164814.htm

An effective climate change solution may lie in rocks beneath our feet | Greenbiz. (n.d.).

Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://www.greenbiz.com/article/effective-

climate-change-solution-may-lie-rocks-beneath-our-feet

Brown Jr., G. (2010, December 8). Environmental mineralogy – understanding element

behavior in ecosystems.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631071311000046.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631071311000046

How do minerals form? mineral-forming environments: AMNH. American Museum of

Natural History. (n.d.). Retrieved November 5, 2022, from

https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/gems-minerals/how-do-minerals-

form#:~:text=Igneous%20rocks%20and%20minerals%20solidify,Earth%20and

%20other%20rocky%20planets.

Orrill, J. (2019, November 22). Environmental Problems Caused by Minerals. Sciencing.

https://sciencing.com/list-7362368-environmental-problems-caused-minerals.html

Singh, Ph.D., B., & Schulze, Ph.D., D. G. (n.d.). Soil Minerals and Plant Nutrition.

Nature news. Retrieved November 16, 2022, from

nutrition-127881474/

Vedantu. (2022, April 27). Uses of Minerals. VEDANTU.

https://www.vedantu.com/chemistry/uses-of-minerals