Abandoned mines and quarries are anthropogenically created subsurface and surface excavations that have ceased economic operation, forming a distinct focus of research in environmental geoscience, engineering geology, and restoration ecology. Scientific study addresses physical integrity (e.g., slope stability, subsidence, and collapse), hydrogeological alterations such as modified groundwater flow paths and mine drainage, and geochemical processes including metal mobilization and acid generation in sulfide-bearing systems. They are also investigated as sites for habitat development, tailings and waste-rock management, contaminant fate and transport, and potential reuse, for example in geothermal energy, underground storage, or controlled waste disposal, underpinned by quantitative risk assessment and long-term monitoring frameworks.
According to a study by the Department of Physics and the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the Mar Menor saltwater lagoon in Murcia, Spain, the largest ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 13, 2025
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Soil contamination is a global environmental concern, with toxic metals and metalloids from industrial activities persisting as long-term pollutants. Arsenic (As), although naturally occurring, becomes widespread when mobilized ...
Ecology
Oct 6, 2025
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20
Over the past 8,000 years, Utah's Great Salt Lake has been sensitive to changes in climate and water inflow. Now, new sediment isotope data indicate that human activity over the past 200 years has pushed the lake into a biogeochemical ...
Environment
Aug 16, 2025
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150
A collaborative research trial has demonstrated that direct seeding offers a scalable and cost-effective alternative to traditional tubestock planting for ecological rehabilitation on sand mines in southeast Queensland.
Ecology
Aug 4, 2025
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Cheap volcanic rock that languishes in open-cut mines and quarries could transform Australia's farming sector as a natural fertilizer, boosting crop yields and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Agriculture
Jul 14, 2025
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Baobab trees may be a proxy for measuring long-term use of land by humans. They live long, have economic benefits, and are used as shrines and markers on landscapes. Archaeologists have long suspected an association between ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 30, 2025
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18
When researchers completed a national study of hazardous forever chemicals recently, they found that a South Carolina river had higher levels of pollution from the toxins than any other waterway they examined across the country.
Environment
Jun 27, 2025
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186
New research reveals that PET-based glitter microplastics can actively influence biomineralization processes in marine environments, raising fresh concerns about the long-term environmental impact of microplastic pollution ...
Environment
Apr 1, 2025
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