What is the environmental impact of clay?
The extraction of clay, as a basic raw material for the pottery industries, brought several negative environmental impacts such as: ecological and agricultural imbalances, erosion, silting of rivers and lakes, deforestation.
What is clay mining?
A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement. Quarries where clay is mined to make bricks are sometimes called brick pits.
Is mining clay sustainable?
Abstract: Sustainability in the mining of clay depends on the nature of the resource, its usage, extraction practices, and the reuse of land affected by mining. Different types of clay can be identified and marketed reducing waste and increasing returns. The land can be properly landscaped and reused.
Is clay environmentally friendly?
When compared to many other facing materials such as so-called concrete bricks, plastics, glass and others, natural clay brick remains one of the most eco-friendly, flexible, cost effective and beautiful materials used in construction.
Is clay good for the environment?
Due to its natural origin and its components, clay is not only a sustainable material but also easy to recycle. Extracting clay from the soil is a process that has minimal impact on our environment. Combined with eco-friendly industrial practices, this makes clay one of the most harmless raw materials.
Where is clay found in nature?
Most clay minerals form where rocks are in contact with water, air, or steam. Examples of these situations include weathering boulders on a hillside, sediments on sea or lake bottoms, deeply buried sediments containing pore water, and rocks in contact with water heated by magma (molten rock).
What is the danger of extracting clay?
Many metal fumes generated at high temperatures are highly toxic by inhalation. Since lead vaporizes at a relatively low temperature, it is especially hazardous. Carbon monoxide from fuel-fired kilns or the combustion of organic matter in clays is highly toxic by inhalation and can cause oxygen starvation.
Why is clay soil suitable for pottery?
Clay has the ability to be molded into different sort of shapes and structures when water is mixed to it. After adding water to clay soil malleable material is formed. This is why clay soil is used for ceramics by ceramicists.
Why is clay a sustainable material?
Healthy living environments. As clay building products do not usually require chemical treatment to ensure durability or fire-resistance, they do not emit volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde or allergens to air during their in-use phase.
Why is mining bad for the environment?
Mines are known to cause severe environmental problems. Mining is the extraction of minerals and other geological materials of economic value from deposits on the earth. Mining has the potential to have severely adverse effects on the environment including loss of biodiversity, erosion, contamination of surface water, ground water, and soil.
Why study clay and clay mineral deposits?
These studies can tell us how and where these minerals form and provide industry and land-planning agencies with the information necessary to decide how and where clay and clay mineral deposits (fig. 1) can be developed safely with minimal effects on the environment.
What are the geologic conditions for the formation of clay?
Clays and clay minerals occur under a fairly limited range of geologic conditions. The environments of formation include soil horizons, continental and marine sediments, geothermal fields, volcanic deposits, and weathering rock formations. Most clay minerals form where rocks are in contact with water, air, or steam.
What is the effect of clay minerals on organic compounds?
The property of clay minerals that causes ions in solution to be fixed on clay surfaces or within internal sites applies to all types of ions, including organic molecules like pesticides. Clays can be an important vehicle for transporting and widely dispersing contaminants from one area to another.