434 ECONOMIC GEOLOGY Bishop Richard of Durham would have been saddened to see his word ‘Geologia’ fall into desuetude after 700 years See Also Atmosphere Evolution Carbon Cycle Famous Geologists: Agassiz; Hutton; Lyell Fossil Plants: Calcareous Algae Gaia History of Geology Since 1962 Minerals: Carbonates Palaeoclimates Weathering Further Reading Ernst WGF (ed.) (2000) Earth Systems: Processes and Issues Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hamblin K (2002) The Earth’s Dynamic Systems: A Textbook in Physical Geology New York: Prentice Hall Jacobson MC, Charlson RJ, Rodhe H, and Orians H (2000) Earth System Science San Diego: Academic Press Kump LR, Keating JF, Crane RG, and Kasting JF (2003) The Earth System: An Introduction to Earth Systems Science New York: Prentice Hall Lovelock J (2000) The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth Oxford: Oxford University Press Nisbet E (2002) The influence of life on the face of the Earth In: Fowler CMR, Ebinger CJ, and Hawkesworth CJ (eds.) The Early Earth: Physical, Chemical and Bio logical Development, pp 275 307 Special Publication 199 London: Geological Society EARTHQUAKES See ENGINEERING GEOLOGY: Aspects of Earthquakes; TECTONICS: Earthquakes ECONOMIC GEOLOGY G R Davis, Imperial College London, London, UK ß 2005, Elsevier Ltd All Rights Reserved Introduction If you visit the strangely dimpled landscape known from Saxon times as Grimes Graves in Norfolk, England, you will see not an ancient burial ground, but hundreds of backfilled shafts in the white Cretaceous Chalk Here Neolithic man discovered and exploited a thin subsurface layer of dark flint (Figure 1) so extensive and of such superior quality that, after due process of mining and treatment, the finished product could profitably be traded and fashioned into the finest flint tools and weapons at the cutting edge of technology If you visit the flat forested landscape known as Weipa in the Yorke Peninsula, Australia, you will see where twentieth century man discovered and now exploits a surface layer of red bauxite (Figure 2) so extensive and of such superior quality that, after due process of mining and treatment, the finished product can profitably be traded and fashioned into the finest aluminium utensils and machines at the cutting edge of technology In his long march from hunter-gatherer to moonwalker, Homo has used his sapiens to exploit the Earth’s bountiful mineral resources that, apart from food and clothing, have provided the materials for his advancement At about 2000 bc flint from Grimes Graves and many other flint workings in the Cretaceous Chalk of Europe was an economic industrial mineral because insufficient copper and bronze was available to meet demand The occurrence in nature of native copper and gold had already led to their use Figure A sketch to illustrate how high quality flint was mined in the chalk of Britain about 4000 years ago