Mauricio Ricardo Jimenez Realpe

¿What is the relationship that soils have in the conformation of

The past of the earth and its formation is of utmost importance since
there are studies of more than five billion years ago, where there was
no trace of what we call earth today, only the sun was formed, there
was no air, only carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water vapor, by this time
there were no solid surfaces.
A whole day only lasted six hours, to understand the birth of our planet
we must investigate billions of years ago, where there was a meteor
shower, we suffered the attack of the remains of the formation of the
solar system for more than twenty million years, but in turn these
missiles were those that contained the vital ingredient of life on earth,
as each meteorite contained a small amount of water that for so long
managed to form bodies of water in solid ground, making the surface
cool enough to form a crust. As the years passed, the moon moved
away, the waters calmed down and the planet began to rotate more
and more slowly.
Seven hundred million years had to pass so that the waters of the
planet had a surface where each one of them had islands in its interior
which began to be exploited making the islands, these that in the future
would be the ones that would form the continents. This planet at this
time only had land and water, but its atmosphere was so toxic and its
temperature very high that no one could inhabit it.
Again we have meteorite showers releasing carbon and different
components from outer space which reached the bottom of the ocean
and affected the sea causing the water to begin to seep into the earth's
crust through its cracks, this process heated the water collecting
gases, minerals and joining different chemicals which generated life, by
this combination, small unicellular bacteria were born, which were the
first forms of life on earth.
This was a very important moment in the formation of our planet since
it was the first step to life, but after this there was no progress or
evolution, the only living beings were still unicellular bacteria, they
looked like mountains of rocks growing in the sea; colonies that were
called stromatolites, but in turn these bacteria made photosynthesis
converting carbon dioxide and water into glucose. From this
transformation was where the gas that we know today as oxygen
emerged, it was these stromatolites who filled the sea with oxygen and
in turn the oxygen converted the remains of iron into oxygen which
covered the seabed forming ferrous rock which is the mineral we use to
build bridges and ships.
During the following two billion years’ oxygen levels continued to rise
and the planet rotated slower making the days longer, by that time the
days lasted 16 hours, it is interesting to see the importance and the
time it took to create our planet, millions of years passed where we can
see that the continent called Rodinia was formed where the
temperature and the days increased, but it was not enough to find life.
Without forgetting other events no less important as the first fossil
records, the first vertebrates existing on earth, the end of the Paleozoic
and beginning of the Mesozoic, we also suffered the disappearance of
the dinosaurs and the beginning of the Cenozoic, in addition to this a
very important event was the appearance of the Australopithecus these
are the direct ancestors of homo sapiens.
Evidently the whole process that our planet has had is very shocking,
first it was a ball of fire and then it became a ball of ice, it generated
different volcanoes that impacted and released carbon dioxide which
made the temperature increase more, the oxygen levels were very
changeable, it is interesting to see where all the products we use today
come from and the use we give them.
By nourishing ourselves with all this information we see the relationship
and importance that soils had in the conformation of the earth, we
could see in different moments of the documentary that thanks to soils
we began to evolve; going from an ecosystem where only single-celled
bacteria, microscopic beings, initially survived to dinosaurs of more
than three meters high to finally reach us.
We can call soils the source of life since they provide more than 90%
of the food we consume to survive, it is so important that if they do not
have the necessary care we could not ensure a healthy future for the
next generation because they are the soils that host much of the
biodiversity of our planet, in addition to this we find many interesting
fields of exploration for the development of the economy, we can find in
this extensive list of importance of soils some very common examples
among us as are the precious metals that speaking of Colombia is
positioned among the 20 countries with the highest gold production,
Colombia is also the second largest exporter of emeralds in the world,
having privileged conditions in its soils and thus one of the most sought
after gemstones in the world today, in the soils live a large number of
plant species, which are among the more than 380,000 species
worldwide and if we talk about Colombia we have between 40,000 and
45,000 registered species. For the animals that play an important role
for the formation, functioning and fertility of the same in the world we
count between 1.5 and 2 million species.
Finally, soil is a great source of indispensable elements such as
nitrogen, which is assimilated and metabolized by animals, plants,
bacteria and fungi. We must emphasize that soils fulfill another very
important function: they act as a filter that retains and transforms water
impurities. In addition to the exploration of oil and natural gas that
make that day by day the humanity continues in period of
transformation and adaptation thanks to all the composition that it has,
but also we see that of In one way or another, mankind is causing the
loss of the natural processes carried out by the soil to maintain a
balance in ecosystems.
Currently we have a great degradation of natural resources because in
the past we thought that these resources would be unlimited, but over
time we have been responsible for creating technologies and tools for
a stronger exploitation without thinking about the consequences or the
time it would take to repair these damages in a natural way. We are
suffering the consequences today as we see the rise in sea level due
to the increase in water volume caused by global warming. This is why
we see how in our daily life we have suffered in the production of food
that depends on the climate, especially the temperature. Another
serious problem that is already becoming evident day by day is the
scarcity and pollution of water with industrial discharges. We see a
great deforestation by human activities generating impoverishment of
the diversity of plants and animals.
A contribution that society could make at present and thinking in the
future would be to sow in children through education a lifestyle more
sensitive to the environment and thus be able to generate individual
and collective commitments in relation to sustainable development,
since it is the youth who can contribute to care by reducing the
consumption of resources.