6 results for tag: geology

Navigating Geological Contrasts: Strategies for Sustainable Agriculture in Tanzania

Tanzania exhibits highly contrasting geology, which plays a crucial role in its strengths and limitations for agricultural development. Certain areas of the region contain abundant minerals for fertile soils while others suffer from depletion. This disparity arises largely from the region's unique geomorphological features, notably its location along the East African Rift System (EARS). The EARS is an extensive continental rift valley beginning at the Red Sea in the north, and extending eastward into the Indian Ocean (Wood & Turn). The rift is actively forming through extensional tectonics, a process that pulls apart the Earth’s crust, thinning ...

Engineers Without Borders is Addressing Food Security in Tanzania

David Paul and Pupils of Chagu Primary School fetching water from the lake with crocodiles. Click to enlarge photos and graphics. David Paul (standing, left) uses a groundwater detection electrode system to survey water resources Kilimanjaro region. This work is part of a project to supply clean, safe drinking water to the Maasai Community of this area.     David Paul Blessing, current president of Engineers Without Borders-Tanzania (EWB-Tanzania), sat in his hotel room in Nguruka township after a long day of work. He and his team were on-site helping to develop safe drinking water sources and sanitation facilities for ...

Study Captures Data to Turn Midwestern Farms into Carbon Sinks

(Left to right) Prof. Daniel Maxbauer, Jaren Yambing, and Ella Milliken Carleton College geologists join a growing wave of research into the carbon-trapping power of pulverized rock in America's agricultural fields No one could have predicted the severe heatwave that would swelter Ella Milliken and Jaren Yambing's first week of baseline field testing in June 2021—except maybe climate scientists. It was the longest heatwave to occur so early in a Minnesotan summer.  Under a blazing June sun, the Carleton College research assistants walked among rows of knee-high corn saplings in 90-degree weather. Flagging the corners of 12 half-acre plots, they ...

REMINERA: How A Stonemeal Startup Arose During A Time Of Pandemic

It was the beginning of the pandemic. My colleague, Nayara Mesquita, and I had recently defended our geosciences masters theses at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), and I was still figuring out my ‘next steps’ in life. Always the multitasker, Nayara was already doing an MBA on leadership and sustainability, along with social entrepreneurship and environmental activism. She warmly invited me to join her and start studying stonemeal, food security and carbon sequestration. We had heard about stonemeal just once or twice at university, and so it was still a relatively new field for us. It did not take much to fall in love with the ...

Blending Biochar with Rockdust: High-efficiency Mineral Delivery

Seedlings grown in soil treated with rock dust. 4 trays on left are commercial rock dust products; 3 on right are potential midwest region resources.   David Yarrow emphasizes that carbon is only one element in soil, and that the priority for our planet is soil regeneration through stewardship of diverse living communities and cultures. The very actions essential to put carbon, minerals, and microbes back in soils may restore authentic community to human society, wealth to community economies, health to human bodies, and true culture to our relations with the Earth as Gaia, a unified living intelligence.   Foundation fertility Rock ...

Spotlight on Agrogeologist Peter Van Straaten, PhD

At the II Brazilian “Rochagem” Conference, which took place in Poco de Caldas, Minas Gerais, in May 2013, Professor Peter van Straaten gave a series of talks on the use of rock dust to increase soil health for agriculture. As a pioneer in the practice of using rocks for soil remineralization, van Straaten shared his extensive knowledge with a broad spectrum of scientists and researchers who attended the conference. An expert in agrogeology, which Van Straaten defines as “geology in service of agriculture,” he has built an international network of projects that study remineralization and sustainable agriculture in Africa. His work has helped ...