Science 1102 Exam 3

open pit mining... Lecture 22, slide 14: The Berkeley Pit Chemocline

- ... involves digging a gigantic hole and removing the desired ore, along with waste rock that surrounds the ore. - This method is used when the mineral is spread widely and evenly throughout a rock formation. - Open pit mines are terraced so workers and machinery can move about, and continue to be expanded as long as the mine is profitable. - Open pit mines are so massive because of the amount of waste rock that must be removed to extract small amounts of ore. - Once mining is complete, abandoned mines can fill up with water, which becomes toxic due to the formation of sulfuric acid and the leaching of metals. - The Berkeley Pit is a former copper mine in Montana that is one of the largest EPA Superfund cleanup sites, containing water with a pH of 2.2.

Metals are extracted from ores

- A METAL is a type of chemical element, or a mass of such an element, that typically is lustrous, opaque, and malleable, and can conduct heat and electricity. - Most metals are not found in a pure state in nature, rather in ORE, a mineral or grouping of minerals from which we extract metals. - Coltan is the ore that tantalum is extracted from.

We need both conservation and renewable energy

- A combination of energy efficiency and conservation efforts is essential to creating a sustainable future. - Some estimates hold that the U.S. could save 6 million barrels of oil a day, more than could be gained from Canada's oil sands.

Efficiency and conservation bring benefits

- Americans use far more energy per person than people in most other nations. - This indicates that Americans could reduce their energy consumption without significantly impacting their quality of life.

2) Secondary extraction

- At a typical oil or gas well, as much as two-thirds of a deposit may remain in the ground after primary extraction. - In secondary extraction, solvents, water, or steam is injected into the well to force the remaining oil or gas out by pressure. - This is a much more expensive process than primary extraction.

We use mined minerals extensively

- At current rates of use, a child born in 2015 will use more than 1.4 million kg of minerals and fuel during his or her lifetime. - Most of this is for fossil fuels and construction material.

Rocks provide the minerals we use

- Both gradual and catastrophic geological processes influence the distribution of rocks and minerals in the lithosphere and their availability to us. - A ROCK is a solid aggregation of minerals. - A MINERAL is a naturally occurring solid chemical element or inorganic compound with a crystal structure, a specific chemical composition, and distinct physical properties. - In some cases, the rock is the resource. In others, minerals embedded within rocks are.

Carbon emissions drive climate change

- Burning fossil fuels alters the carbon cycle, as long-term reservoirs of carbon are liberated and converted to carbon dioxide. - Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and its emission is recognized as the biggest consequence of fossil fuel use.

oil and natural gas

- CRUDE OIL is unrefined oil extracted from the ground. - NATURAL GAS is a gas consisting primarily of methane (CH4) and other volatile hydrocarbons. - PETROLEUM usually refers to oil, but may also refer to oil and natural gas collectively. - Oil and natural gas are derived from marine plankton that died, sank to the sea bottom, became buried, and transformed by time, heat, and pressure. - These eventually settle under impermeable rock formations, which must be drilled through before the oil and gas can be accessed.

Each fossil fuel has its own mix of uses

- Coal is primarily used for electricity generation. Coal-fired power plants use coal combustion to convert water to stay, which turns tubings to produce electricity - Natural gas is used for electricity generation, heat, and cooking. - Petroleum is used as fuel for vehicles and petroleum products are found in many household items.

Fossil fuel emissions also pose health risks

- Combusting coal emits mercury, which biomagnifies in food chains. - Cancer-causing hydrocarbons such as benzene and toluene are released from burning gasoline. - Poisonous hydrogen sulfide evaporates from crude oil. - Vehicles and power plants release sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which cause acid precipitation.

refining crude oil

- Crude oil (unrefined oil) is a mixture of hundreds of hydrocarbons that have different boiling points and must undergo refining, a process that separates the molecules by size. - Crude oil is sent to a boiler where it is heated into a super-hot mix of liquid and vapor called the feed - The compounds with a lower boiling point rise up as vapors, while the compounds with a higher boiling point fall downwards as liquids - The separated products of refining are specialized fuels for heating, cooking, transportation, and are also used to make lubricating oils, asphalts, and other petrochemical products - OUTPUT: 49.2% = Gasoline, 25% diesel fuel, 8% Kerosense/ jet fuel, 3.1% liquefied petroleum gases, 2.1% heavy fuel oil, 12.7% other

Recycle minerals - more sustainable use Lecture 23, slide 3 (US recycled minerals)

- Currently, only about 35% of metals in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream are recycled. - Increasing these rates will help to reduce the impacts of mining and processing, and will drastically reduce energy consumption.

Mining for Cell Phones

- Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R. Congo) has been embroiled in a regional conflict involving other countries and rebel militias since 1998. -During this time, local farms have been burned, civilians raped, tortured and killed, and others forced to work in tantalum mines. - Tantalum is a vital mineral for producing capacitors within the circuit boards of many electronics.

EROI (energy returned on investment) = Energy returned / Energy invested

- Energy sources are assessed using EROI (energy returned on investment), which is calculated by: - EROI = Energy returned / Energy invested - Ratios rise when extraction becomes easier or more efficient, and lower when resources become depleted and harder to extract. - EROI ratios for conventional oil and natural gas in the U.S. declined from 24:1 in the 1950s to 11:1 in recent years.

Where will we turn for energy?

- Enormous amounts of energy, money, and technology are now being used to extend our reach for fossil fuels. - Oil and gas wells are being drilled deeper, and into places that were once unreachable (Arctic sea beds, farther offshore in the ocean, etc). - New resources, such as oil sands, are also being tapped.

peak oil lecture 12, slide 31, 32

- Eventually, extraction of any nonrenewable resource will reach a peak, then decline. - If demand holds steady or increases when this happens, shortages are likely. - This scenario is called PEAK OIL with petroleum, because it is likely to occur in the near future. - In 1956, Shell Oil geologist M. King Hubbard predicted that the U.S. would hit peak oil in 1970. - This came true, although unconventional sources have increased production back toward those levels. - The world is going to reach peak oil at some point in the near future, raising questions about what other fuels or technologies will replace it.

Car fuel conservation = key to conservation

- Following the OPEC embargo of 1970, the U.S. increased its corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) standards. - As fuel prices fell over the next few decades, these standards were not increased further until 2007.

Fossil fuel extraction has mixed consequences for local people

- Fossil fuel extraction often leads to a flush of high-paying jobs and economic activity that seems to outweigh any potential environmental costs. - Over time, these booms go bust, and the legacy of pollution may remain for generations. - The Keystone XL pipeline was estimated to provide thousands of jobs, but many landowners declined TransCanada's offers to buy their land. - Eminent domain, a policy where courts can set aside private property rights, has been used in some cases to take the land anyways.

fossil fuels

- Fossil fuels were formed hundreds of millions of years ago, from organisms performing photosynthesis. - After death, these organisms ended up in an anaerobic environment, where their organic matter was converted by heat and pressure into a fossil fuel.

Rebound effect cuts into efficiency gains

- Gains in efficiency may be offset if people engage in more energy-consuming behavior as a result. - This phenomenon is called the rebound effect, and in some cases may completely erase efficiency gains.

4) Melting ice is opening the Arctic

- Global climate change has opened many areas of the Arctic to offshore drilling. - Frigid temperatures, ice floes, winds, waves, and brutal storms make conditions challenging and accidents likely. - Only Royal Dutch Shell has attempted to drill in the Arctic, but a series of accidents and protests led them to withdraw from drilling as of 2015.

It takes energy to make energy NET ENERGY = energy returned - energy invested

- Harvesting energy requires the use of heavy machinery, construction of roads, pipeline, waste ponds, storage tanks, and more — all requiring investments of energy. Net energy expresses the difference between energy returned and energy invested. Net energy = Energy returned - energy invested

Impacts of Coal

- Health risks to subsurface miners due to mine collapse or the inhalation of coal dust. - Extensive soil erosion. - Acid mine drainage, where sulfide minerals in exposed rock react with oxygen and rainwater to produce sulfuric acid. - Habitat loss, especially in areas where mountaintop removal is being conducted.

placer mining

- If metals and gems accumulate in riverbed deposits, placer mining can be used to separate light and heavy materials through the use of running water. - Miners in the D.R. Congo use placer mining to isolate high-density tantalite.

Tailings = often stored in large reservoirs called SURFACE IMPOUNDMENTS

- If the wall of the impoundment is compromised, a large-scale spill can occur, destroying aquatic ecosystems and contaminating local drinking water supplies. - Small-scale leaching is also common from these impoundments, as it is difficult to properly line and maintain them.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

- In 2010, BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform exploded and sank as emergency shutoff systems failed. - Oil continued to leak into the Gulf for three months, as BP's engineers tried to find a way to stop the leak. - A wide variety of impacts occurred due to the Deepwater Horizon spill, ranging from birds becoming coated with oil to beach and ocean floor contamination. - Overall, pollution from large spills has declined in recent decades, largely due to regulations that emerged as a result of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. - Today, most oil pollution entering the ocean comes from countless nonpoint sources, such as homes, gas stations, businesses, and cars that leak oil into roadways.

Sustainable Mineral Use Lecture 22, slide 29: Recycled minerals in the US table

- In addition to the impacts of mining, we also have to consider that minerals are nonrenewable resources. - Reducing waste, and recovering and recycling used mineral resources are key to the sustainable use of minerals. - Some minerals are so abundant that we will likely never run out. - Other minerals, such as tantalum, have limited reserves that will run out. - The most dwindling is indium, a metal used in LCD screens, with supplies that may only last another 30 years. - Currently, only about 35% of metals in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream are recycled. - Increasing these rates will help to reduce the impacts of mining and processing, and will drastically reduce energy consumption.

We obtain minerals by mining

- MINING refers to the systematic removal of rock, soil, or other material for the purpose of extracting minerals of economic interest. - Mining also has a broader definition that can include extracting other resources, such as fossil fuels and water.

Dependence on foreign energy affects economic security

- Many nations lack adequate fossil fuel reserves to supply their own energy needs and rely on imports. - This gives seller nations more control over energy prices, especially as supplies dwindle. - In 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) resolved to stop selling oil to the United States, creating an energy crisis. - To reduce its risk, the United States has supported oil sands extraction in Canada, the construction of oil pipelines, and diversified its sources of imported petroleum. - This has also led to repeated attempts to open up oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

solution mining Lecture 22, slide 19 picture

- Minerals in deep deposits can be extracted by dissolving them in a liquid through solution mining. - A narrow borehole is drilled into the Earth and water, acid, or another liquid is injected to leach out the mineral. Salt, lithium, potash, copper, and uranium can all be extracted in this way.

Mining methods and their impacts

- Minerals of interest often make up only a small portion of the rock in a given area, so large amounts of material must be removed to obtain them. - As a result, mining disturbs large areas of land and exerts severe impacts on the surrounding environment. - Multiple methods may be used to extract the resource, depending on the nature of the deposit.

Energy sources offered by nature

- Most of the Earth's energy comes from the SUN, which drives wind, the water cycle, and photosynthesis. - Other forms of energy in the earth include GEOTHERMAL ENERGY from the core and from the bonds between protons and neutrons in atoms. - TIDAL ENERGY --> are perpetually renewable - When plants and other organisms die and are buried in sediments under particular conditions, their stored chemical energy may eventually be incorporated into FOSSIL FUELS, such as oil, coal, and natural gas. --> nonrenewable because it takes thousands of years for the biosphere to generate the organic matter consumed by our society in a single day of fossil fuel combustion.

Fuels can leak during transport and storage

- OIL and COAL are both transported by rail, which carries a risk of derailment and explosion. - About 2.7% of natural GAS piped to homes and businesses escapes into the air. - METHANE also escapes into the air during oil drilling, because pipelines are often not in place to collect it. - PIPELINES are subject to corrosion, vandalism, and equipment malfunction.

Oil shale processed into shale oil

- Oil shale is sedimentary rock filled with organic matter that can be processed into shale oil. - Occurs in areas where deposits were not buried deeply enough to be subjected to enough heat and pressure to form oil.

We process metals after mining ore

- Ores must be pulverized and washed before the desired minerals can be physically or chemically extracted. - SMELTING is the process of heating an ore beyond its melting point and combining it with other chemicals to extract a metal. - Smelting may also involve a metal with another metal or nonmetal -substance, forming an ALLOY.

recycle metals from e-waste (e.g. phones)

- Recycling electronic waste may be the best way to start conserving rare, valuable minerals, preventing many of the issues that come with mining minerals. - More than 130 million cell phones are rendered obsolete each year; only about 10% are recycled.

4) Offshore drilling

- Roughly 35% of the oil and 10% of the natural gas extracted in the United States today come from offshore sites, such as the Gulf of Mexico and coastal California - Deep water drilling technology has outpaced our ability to deal with accidents, as shown by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 - This forced a temporary hold on new drilling in 2011, until new rules and regulations could be designed

Also mine nonmetallic minerals and fuels

- SAND and GRAVEL are the most commonly mined mineral resources. - These are nonmetallic, but are useful for making products such as concrete. - Gemstones - limestone, salt - and potash are all examples of other nonmetallic minerals.

Some mining occurs in the ocean

- Seawater itself contains some minerals, such as magnesium. - Vacuum-cleaner-like hydraulic dredges can be used to extract other minerals from the ocean floor. - The logistical difficulty of reaching these minerals has made their extraction too expensive to be practical.

depleting fossil fuels

- Since fossil fuels are nonrenewable, the total amount available on Earth declines as we use them. - Analysts calculate the reserves-to-production ratio, or R/P ratio, by dividing the total remaining reserves by the annual rate of production. - The current estimate of OIL reserves is 1.7 trillion barrels and the rate of production is 32 billion per year. 1.7 trillion / 32 billion = 53 years remaining. - Natural GAS reserves are estimated to last 54 more years - COAL's R/P ratio is about 110 years. - The actual amount of years we have left could change if our demand, production, or known reserve levels change. - e.g hydraulic fracturing is allowing us to access tight oil confined in or near shale, increasing reserve levels.

what we use fossil fuels for

- Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuels have replaced biomass as our dominant source of energy. - The high energy content makes these more efficient to burn, ship, and store. - We use fossil fuels for transportation, manufacturing, heating, cooking, and to generate Electricity.

Tantalum miners

- Tantalum miners receive very little of the profits of their work, as soldiers and rebels steal and sell it to international traders instead. - A grass-roots movement encouraged an embargo on minerals from conflict-ridden areas of D.R. Congo. - A 2002 peace treaty, followed by success by Congolese troops and an African-led U.N. intervention brigade have helped reduce conflict in the region. - Other black markets for minerals have emerged, including in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela in the northern Amazon jungle.

Reclamation (restoration)

- The aim of reclamation is to restore the site to a condition similar to its condition before mining. - This involves: 1) Removing buildings and other mining structures. 2) Replacing overburden. 3) Filling in mine shafts. 4) Replanting vegetation. - The 1977 "Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act" requires U.S. companies to cover the costs of mining reclamation before permits are approved. - Research is ongoing to find new strains of plants that can tolerate conditions in reclaimed sites, as well as treating the acid mine runoff.

Distribution of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) Lecture 12, slide 12 - table of distribution!!, slide 13 - energy consumption per capita in the world, slide 26 table of distribution!!

- The distribution of fossil fuel reserves varies from region to region. - depends on its size and level of industrialization. -e.g. US 26.6% coal, 5.6% natural gas of world reserve (...table!!) - In the United States, coal, oil, and natural gas supply 82% of the total energy demand. - In general, developed countries consume more fossil fuel than developing countries. - Developing countries tend to use energy for subsistence activities, while developed countries use it for transportation, industry, and other uses.

We pay all external costs

- The health and environmental impacts of fossil fuels are external costs that we pay as a society: 1) Medical expenses. 2) Environmental cleanup. 3) Long-term damage from climate change. - Fossil fuels have been kept artificially inexpensive due to government subsidies and tax breaks for extraction companies.

5) New fossil fuel sources

- There is an estimated 3 trillion barrels of OIL SHALE to be extracted, much of it in the United States. - The EROI for this oil is low, ranging from 4:1 to 1.1:1. - MATHANE hydrate is also abundant, but so far only Japan has attempted to extract it due to concerns about accidental releases of methane.

Keystone XL Pipeline

- To facilitate the transport of tar sands oil to the U.S., TransCanada constructed a large pipeline called the KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE extension. - An extension of this pipeline has been proposed to be built through the Dakotas to shorten the distance, increase capacity, and reach productive oil fields in North Dakota and Montana. - It's by water!! A lot of the land is still owned by Indians!! --> - Protests quickly began when this extension was proposed, with objections including: 1) Oil use should be reduced, and we should be transitioning to renewable energy instead. 2) Oil spills could contaminate the Sandhills area of Nebraska and the Ogallala Aquifer. - In 2015, President Obama decided against approving the pipeline.

The General Mining Act of 1872

- allows any U.S. citizen or any company with permission to do business in the United States to stake a claim on any plot of public land open to mining. - The law was passed to help regulate the California Gold Rush, but critics argue that it gives away public resources to private interests for next to nothing. - Attempts to revise this law, such as the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2015, have not passed through Congress.

directional drilling

- allows drillers to bore down vertically and then curve to drill horizontally. - This allows drillers to reach a large radius around each drill pad without constructing additional drill pads.

oil sands

- are a mixture of moist sand and clay containing 1-20% bitumen, a thick and heavy form of petroleum. - Oil sands form when crude oil (unrefined oil) deposits are partially degraded by bacteria.

Oil sands or tar sands

- are layers of sand or clay saturated with a viscous, tarry type of petroleum called bitumen. - Huge areas of tar sands are available around Alberta, Canada, and the impacts of extracting and processing the oil are huge.

Risks of hydraulic fracturing (fracking)

- are not fully understood, but potential concerns include: 1) Leakage of fracking fluids from drilling shafts into nearby aquifers. 2) Movement of methane upward and into aquifers. 3) The production of air pollution due to the release of methane and volatile organic compounds. 4) Contamination of injected water with salts, radioactive elements, and toxic chemicals found in the deep rock. 5) Causing minor earthquakes. Oil sands are the most ecologically damaging, due to the vast amount of deforestation, water usage, and toxic wastewater release.

energy efficiency

- describes the ability to obtain a given amount of output while using less energy input. - This results from improved technology.

Energy conservation

- describes the practice of reducing wasteful or unnecessary energy use. - This results from behavioral choices.

Each fossil fuel has its own mix of uses.

- e.g. coal is primarily used for electricity generation. - e.g. Coal-fired power plants use coal combustion to convert water to steam, which turns turbines to produce electricity. - e.g. Natural gas is used for electricity generation, heat, and cooking. - e.g. Petroleum is used as fuel for vehicles and petroleum products are found in many household items.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS)

- involves capturing carbon dioxide emissions, converting the gas to a liquid form, and then sequestering (storing) it in the ocean or underground in a geologically stable rock formation. - Carbon capture and storage remains too unproven to be a viable strategy. 1) There is no way of knowing if stored carbon will remain underground indefinitely. 2) Injection could contaminate groundwater supplies or trigger earthquakes. 3) The process is very energy-intensive and decreases the EROI of coal.

coal

- is a hard blackish substance formed from woody organic matter compressed into a dense, solid, carbon structures. - The more coal is compressed, the denser its carbon content, and the greater its energy content per unit volume. - Coal is extracted primarily through strip mining, subsurface mining, and mountaintop removal.

Cogeneration

- is a process in which excess heat produced during the generation of electricity is captured and used to heat nearby workplaces and homes, and to produce other kinds of power. - Improved design and insulation can also help to reduce heat loss from buildings. - Recent regulations have restricted how much power devices can use while in standby, sometimes called "vampire" power loss. - The U.S. EPA's Energy Star program labels refrigerators, dishwashers, and other appliances for their efficiency.

Methane hydrate

- is a solid consisting of molecules of methane embedded in a crystal lattice of water molecules. - Found in sediments in the Arctic and ocean floor

Energy intensity

- is the energy use per dollar of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). - Lower energy efficiency indicates a greater efficiency in electricity use.

subsurface mining

- miners burrow into the Earth - shafts are excavated deep into the ground, and networks of tunnels are dug or blasted out to follow deposits of the mineral. - Workers are at risk from dynamite blasts, natural gas explosions, collapsing mine shafts, and inhalation of coal dust and toxic fumes. - After operations cease, runoff through abandoned mines can generate acid mine drainage. - Old mines can also collapse, creating sinkholes at the surface. - The Pennsylvania city of Centralia is now a ghost town because abandoned mines underneath the town caught fire and are still burning today.

The fighting has caused

- people to flee into national parks to escape the fighting, leading to several ecological problems: 1) Clearing of rainforests for fuelwood. 2) Killing rare and endangered animals for food, including the okapi. 3) Increased erosion rates around streams. 4) Runoff of toxic metals and other chemicals from mining operations.

3) Hydraulic fracturing or fracking ...

- pumps chemically treated water under high pressure into layers of rock to crack them. - Fracking has become a major DEBATE in states above the Marcellus Shale deposit, as it creates many jobs but drew down water resources and, in some cases, polluted water.

clean coal technologies

- refer to an array of techniques, equipment, and approaches that aim to remove chemical contaminants during the generation of electricity from coal. - This may involve using minerals (calcium, magnesium) that absorb sulfur dioxide or chemical reactions that remove nitrogen oxides. - Coal can also be dried or converted to a cleaner synthesis gas (called syngas) to make it cleaner-burning.

1) mountaintop removal mining

- removes entire mountaintops to access the coal seams running through them. - This produces huge amounts of rock and soil erosion.

Strip mining

- removes surface layers of soil and rock are large areas to expose the resource. - Strip mining is used when a resource occurs in shallow, horizontal deposits near the surface. - Afterwards, the strip is refilled with the overburden, and the miners move to the next strip. - Strip mining exposes sulfide minerals, which react with oxygen and water to produce sulfuric acid. - This enters waterways, creating acid mine drainage. - The sulfuric acid also leaches metals such as iron from the rocks, creating an orange color.

mountaintop removal mining

- reshapes ridges and can fill valleys - blasts off several hundred vertical feet of a mountain to access an underground seam of a mineral. - The mountain's forests must first be clear-cut and the topsoil removed. - The overburden has much more volume than the original rock, so when it is placed back on the mountain, some is dumped into adjacent valleys. - This clogs streams and rivers, and pollutes waterways with acid mine runoff. - Mountaintop removal drastically intensifies erosion, increasing the frequency of mudslides and flash flooding. - This has caused the EPA to revoke an existing permit, and reexamine the use of this method across the Appalachian Mountains.

To extract oil from oil sands, companies must:

1) Clear the forest and strip-mine the land. 2) Mix the deposits with hot water and chemicals to separate the bitumen from sand. 3) Store wastewater in toxic tailings lakes. -> steps very expensive to do - Until oil prices began rising in 2003, extracting and processing oil from these deposits was not profitable. - One of the biggest buyers of tar sands oil is the United States.

Extending our reach for fossil fuels

1) Mountaintop mining for coal. 2) Secondary extraction from existing wells. 3) Hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas. 4) Offshore drilling in deep waters 5) Exploiting new "unconventional" fossil fuel sources - These all increase fuel production, but reduce the EROI ratios of our fuels, intensify pollution, and worsen climate change.

Processing metals exerts many environmental impacts

1) Processing methods are often very water-intensive and energy-intensive. 2) Chemical reactions and heating processes emit air pollution. 3) Soil and water may be polluted from TAILINGS, portions of ore left over after metals have been extracted.

Crude oil

= a mixture of hundreds of hydrocarbons and must undergo refining, a process that separates the molecules by size. - The separated products of refining are specialized fuels for heating, cooking, transportation, and are also used to make lubricating oils, asphalts, and other petrochemical products.

Proven recoverable reserves

= both technologically and economically recoverable.

economically recoverable portion

= fuel that depends on costs of extraction and market prices

technologically recoverable portions

= fuels that are physically accessible to us

technologically recoverable portions

= the proportions of fuels that are physically accessible to us

Coal-fired power stations in Australia

By 2030 65% of Australia's coal-fired power stations will be over 40 years old

Renewable and nonrenewable forms of energy

Humanity has devised many ways to harness the renewable and nonrenewable forms of energy available on our planet: 1) non-renewable sources: coal, oil, natural gas (fossil fuels), nuclear energy (energy from atomic nuclei of uranium) 2) Renewable sources: Biomass energy (energy stored in plant matter from photosynthesis), Hydropower, Solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy (Earth's internal heat rising from core), tidal and wave energy

economical useful mineral resources - MAP

Lecture 23, slide 20

Steps of making phone

Step 1: Mining in Rwanda Step 2: Refining in Macedonia Step 3: Manufacturing in USA Step 4: Shipping from USA Step 5: Final Assembly in China Step 6: Distribution to customers

Refinery locations and capacity volumes in US Lecture 12, slide 5

Texas is the number 1 producer of Crude in the U.S. making nearly 3 million barrels per day. 2. Gulf of Mexico 3. California 4. Alaska 5. North Dakota

Factors that affect how long mineral deposits last

There are several reasons why estimates of mineral availability change over time: - New resources may be discovered. - Rising prices of some minerals may favor the development of enhanced mining technologies. - Changing technologies can increase or decrease the demand for certain minerals. - Economic booms and recessions will alter rates of consumption. - Recycling rates may increase, especially as prices increase.

Impacts of oil drilling

are primarily due to the infrastructure needed to support it, including access roads, pipelines, housing for workers, excavated soil piles, and sludge storage ponds.

economically recoverable portions

depends on costs of extraction and market prices.