Energy and Mineral Resources

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Energy and Mineral Resources

• Chapter 4, Section 1

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Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources

• A renewable resource can be replenished over
  fairly short time spans such as months, years, or
  decades
• Common examples are plants and animals for food,
  natural fibers for clothing, and trees for lumber
  and paper
• Energy from flowing water, wind, and the sun are
  also renewable resources
• A nonrenewable resource takes millions of years
  to form and accumulate
• When the present supply of nonrenewable resources
  run out, there wont be any more
• Common examples are coal, oil, natural gas, iron,
  copper, uranium, and gold

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Concept Check

• What is the difference between a renewable and a
  non-renewable resource?
• Renewable are replenished within years, while
  non-renewable take millions of years to
  accumulate.

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Fossil Fuels

• Fossil Fuel general term for any hydrocarbon
  that may be used for fuel
• Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas
• Coal forms when heat and pressure transform plant
  material over millions of years
• Power plants primarily use coal to generate
  electricity (using 70 of the coal mined)
• Burning coalmuch of which is high in
  sulfurcreates air pollution problems
• Petroleum (oil) and natural gas form from the
  remains of plants and animals that were buried in
  ancient seas
• Over millions of years and continual sediment
  build up, chemical reactions slowly transform
  some of the organic remains into the liquid and
  gaseous hydrocarbons we call petroleum and
  natural gas

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U.S. Coal Fields
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Oil Trap
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Concept Check

• What two features must an oil trap have?
• Permeable reservoir rock to allow oil and gas to
  collect and a cap rock that keeps oil and gas
  from escaping.

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Tar Sands and Oil Shale

• Some energy experts believe that fuels derived
  from tar sands and oil shales could become good
  substitutes for dwindling petroleum supplies
• Tar sands are usually mixtures of clay and sand
  combined with water and varying amounts of a
  black, thick tar called bitumen
• The oil in tar sands is much more resistant to
  flow and cannot be pumped out easily
• Oil shale is a rock that contains a waxy mixture
  of hydrocarbons called kerogen
• Oil shale can be mined and heated to vaporize the
  kerogen
• The kerogen vapor is processed to remove
  impurities, and then refined

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Oil Shale in the Green River Formation
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Formation of Mineral Deposits

• Ore a material from which a useful mineral or
  minerals can be mined at a profit
• Geologists have established that the occurrences
  of valuable mineral resources are closely related
  to Earths rock cycle
• Some of the most important mineral deposits form
  through igneous processes and from hydrothermal
  solutions
• Igneous processes produce important deposits of
  metallic minerals (gold, silver, copper, mercury,
  lead, platinum, and nickel)
• Most hydrothermal deposits form from hot,
  metal-rich fluids that are left during the late
  stages of movement and cooling of magma
• Placer deposits are formed when eroded heavy
  minerals settle quickly from moving water while
  less dense particles remain suspended and
  continue to move

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Hydrothermal Solutions
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Concept Check

• What are mineral resources?
• Earth materials that are extracted and processed
  for either the metals or the elements they
  contain.

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Nonmetallic Mineral Resources

• Nonmetallic mineral resources are extracted and
  processed either for the nonmetallic elements
  they contain or for their physical and chemical
  properties
• Nonmetallic mineral resources are divided into
  two broad groupsbuilding materials and
  industrial materials
• Natural aggregate (crushed stone, sand, and
  gravel), is an important material used in nearly
  all building construction
• Some substances, like limestone, have many uses
  in both construction and industry (cement, steel,
  neutralizing acidic soils)
• Most industrial minerals are not nearly as
  abundant as building materials, requiring
  considerable processing to extract the desired
  substance at the proper degree of purity

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U.S. per Capita use of Mineral and Energy
Resources
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Assignment

• Read Ch. 4, Sect. 1 (pg. 94-101)
• Do Section 4.1 Assessment 1-8 (pg. 101)