The Gold Rush made
huge changes to the environment. A change that the Gold Rush had on the
environment was caused by hydraulic mining. Hydraulic mining can
pollute the rivers from mountains being destroyed. Mountains can
be destroyed because of the force of the water shooting out from the
cannons. Now that the mountains are destroyed, the sediments will fall
down into the river and pollute it. Therefore the environment is
destroyed because of the destruction of the mountain, and the pollution
of the river caused by the broken sediments from the mountain.
Coyote mining can have a huge
impact on the environment too. Coyote mining is where a miner
from a group of miners digs a hole while collecting gold until that
miner hits bedrock. Once that miner hits bedrock, he would dig to the
sides trying to collect as much gold as possible. The impact this made
was that the mines left holes everywhere that made the environment ugly
and unsafe.
There was also pollution. Lots of the pollution in the gold rush
was from mercury that was used to extract gold from quartz. The mercury
would leak into the ground and end up getting washed into the river
killing lots of the organisims that depend on the river.
Also, lots of towns were being made. Therefore, the miners and people
who were living in the towns had to cut down trees, gather rocks,
and sand to build their homes, hotels, bars, restaurants, shops, and
parlors. When the people did this, it created more chances for the land
to erode.
There were many disasters in the Gold Rush that caused the environment to change.
