APES Unit 9 Chapter 14

Define mineral and rock. What are the 3 types of rock? Describe how each is different. What is the rock cycle, explain its importance.

- A mineral is an element or inorganic compound that occurs naturally in the earth's crust as a solid with a regular internal crystalline structure. - Rock is a solid combination of one or more minerals found in the earth's crust. Some kinds of rock, such as limestone and quartzite, contain only one mineral. - Sedimentary rock is made of sediments—dead plant and animal remains and tiny particles of weathered and eroded rocks. Examples include sandstone, shale, dolomite, limestone, lignite and bituminous coal. - Igneous rock forms below or on the earth's surface when magma wells up from the earth's upper mantle or deep crust and then cools and hardens. Examples include granite and lava rock. - Metamorphic rock forms when a preexisting rock is subjected to high temperatures, high pressures, chemically active fluids, or a combination of these agents. Examples include slate and marble. - The interaction of physical and chemical processes that change rocks from one type to another is called the rock cycle. In this process, rocks are broken down, eroded, crushed, heated, melted, fused together into new forms by heat and pressure, cooled, and/ or recrystallized within the earth's mantle and in the earth's crust. The rock cycle concentrates the planet's nonrenewable mineral resources on which our life processes depend.

Define mineral resource and list two major types of such resources. Describe 3 uses of rock as a resource.

- A mineral resource is a concentration of naturally occurring material from the earth's crust that can be extracted and processed into useful products and raw materials at an affordable cost. - Two major types are metallic minerals (such as aluminum and gold), and nonmetallic minerals (such as sand and limestone). - Some uses include making steel, glass and concrete.

What is depletion time? What are 5 effects of mineral becoming scarce?

- Depletion time is the time it takes to use up a certain proportion— usually 80%— of the reserves of a mineral at a given rate of use. - Scarcity can lead to higher prices, encourage new exploration, stimulate development of new technologies, make lower-grade ores profitable, and encourage substitutes or resource conservation.

What 5 nations supply most of the world's nonrenewable mineral resources? How dependent is the USA on other countries for resources?

- Five nations: The United States, Canada, Russia, South Africa, and Australia—supply most of the nonrenewable mineral resources used by modern societies. - Currently, the United States imports all of its supplies of 20 key nonrenewable mineral resources and more than 90% of its supplies of 4 other key minerals. The United States has little or no reserves of manganese, cobalt, chromium, and platinum, all of which are strategic metal resources.

What is surface mining? Describe area strip mining, Contour strip mining and mountaintop removal.

- Shallow mineral deposits are removed by surface mining, in which materials lying over a deposit are removed to expose the resource for processing. - In area strip mining, used where the terrain is fairly flat, a gigantic earthmover strips away the overburden, and a power shovel removes the mineral deposit. - Contour strip mining is used mostly to mine coal on hilly or mountainous terrain. A huge power shovel cuts a series of terraces into the side of a hill. Colossal earthmovers remove the overburden, a power shovel extracts the coal, and the overburden from each new terrace is dumped onto the one below. - Another surface mining method is mountaintop removal. In the Appalachian Mountains of the United States, where this form of mining is prominent, explosives, large power shovels, and huge machines, called draglines, are used to remove the top of a mountain and expose seams of coal, which are then removed.

Describe some harmful environmental effects of mining.

Mining causes disturbed lands, oil spills and blowouts, and mine waste dumping

What is a Tsunami? Why do they not occur every time there is an earthquake? What was the magnitude of the Tsunami on December 26, 2004 and in Japan in 2011?

A tsunami is a series of large waves generated when part of the ocean floor suddenly rises or drops.

What is a volcano? What is Magma, Lava? What are some benefits of volcanic eruptions? Distinguish between a composite volcano and Shield volcano. Give examples of each.

A volcano is created when magma in the partially molten asthenosphere rises in a plume through the lithosphere to erupt on the surface as lava, which builds a cone.

Define ore, high grade and low grade. Give examples of each

An ore is rock that contains a large enough concentration of a particular mineral—often a metal—to make it profitable for mining and processing. A high-grade ore contains a large concentration of the desired mineral, whereas a low-grade ore contains a smaller concentration.

There are 3 Convergent boundaries, ocean to ocean, ocean to continent and continent to continent . Describe how they are different, which ones subduct and give examples or each.

Convergent boundaries form when two crustal plates are colliding. When one Oceanic plate subducts another Oceanic Plate forming volcanic islands and trenches. Continent-continent convergence creates some of the world's largest mountains ranges.

What is subsurface mining?

Deep deposits of minerals are removed by subsurface mining, in which mineral resources are removed from underground through tunnels and shafts.

Define Earthquake. What is the epicenter, focus? How does the Richter Scale measure earthquakes? How many times greater is the magnitude of an earthquake that is 4.5 from a 3.5? from a 2.5?

Earthquake is a sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth's crust or volcanic action. Epicenter is the point on the earth's surface vertically above the focus of an earthquake. The Richter scale rates the amount of energy released from a single earthquake, letting us know the magnitude of the disaster

Mining minerals like gold from the Earth is necessary for the human race. Describe the environmental impacts that come from such a mining process

Gold miners remove large amounts of rock; extracting enough gold for two rings created about 5.5 metric tons mining waste which is left piled near mine sites and can pollute the air and nearby surface water.

Describe 3 major harmful effects of extracting, processing and using nonrenewable mineral resources

Harmful environmental effects occur during all stages involved in a nonrenewable mineral or resource. Mining causes disturbed lands, oil spills and blowouts, and mine waste dumping. Processing produces solid wastes, pollutes the air, water, and soil, and produces radioactive material, using this causes thermal water pollution, solid and radioactive wastes, and health hazards.

What is smelting? What are the harmful effects of this process?

Heating ores to release metals is called smelting. - Without effective pollution control equipment, smelters emit enormous quantities of air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide and suspended particles, which damage vegetation and acidify soils in the surrounding area. Smelters also cause water pollution and produce liquid and solid hazardous wastes that require safe disposal.

A major geologic process is weathering. Describe the three methods of weathering, physical, chemical and biological. Give examples of each

Physical weathering is caused by the effects of changing temperature on rocks, causing the rock to break apart. The process is sometimes assisted by water. (ex: Exfoliation occurs as cracks develop parallel to the land surface a consequence of the reduction in pressure during uplift and erosion.) Chemical weathering is caused by rain water reacting with the mineral grains in rocks to form new minerals (clays) and soluble salts. These reactions occur particularly when the water is slightly acidic. (ex:Oxidation - the breakdown of rock by oxygen and water, often giving iron-rich rocks a rusty-coloured weathered surface). Trees put down roots through joints or cracks in the rock in order to find moisture. As the tree grows, the roots gradually prize the rock apart.

What is Pollution Prevention Pays.

Pollution Prevention Pays focuses on the remedies, technologies, and processes involved in the prevention and control of pollution, including the role of communities, governments, and industries in such undertaking

Draw the Earth and label the crust, mantle and core. Name the 2 types of crust. What is the lithosphere, asthenosphere?

The asthenosphere is a zone of hot, partly melted rock under the rigid outermost part of the mantle. The combination of the crust and the rigid, outermost part of the mantle is called the lithosphere.

Can we get more minerals from the ocean? Discuss?

The ocean plays a critical role in removing carbon from the atmosphere and providing oxygen. It regulates Earth's climate. The ocean is an increasingly important source of biomedical organisms with enormous potential for fighting disease.

How does convection become the driving force for plate tectonics?

They were likely formed from the flows of energy and heated material in convection cells that caused the lithosphere to break up.

Describe and give examples of a divergent boundary, transform boundary. What is subduction?

divergent boundary - two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other. Transform boundary - plates slide sideways past each other. subduction - the sideways and downward movement of the edge of a plate of the earth's crust into the mantle beneath another plate.

Can we recycle and reuse valuable metals? Discuss.

metals are easily recycled and reused, providing renewed opportunities for their use without having to mine and refine more of it. Thus, issues associated with mining like can be avoided, like acid mine drainage. By recycling, we reduce the need to manage extensive and potential dangerous piles of mine tailings.

Discuss the pros and cons of the mining law of 1872.

pros- cheap for land buyers b/c US wanted mineral expansion cons- land used for other purposes gov. lost $ b/c land was so cheap environment harmed b/c didn't have to pay for reclamation until 1992