Volcanoes and Igneous Activity Earth - Chapter 4

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Chapter 4
Earths Resources
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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources
? Renewable resources can be replenished over
fairly short spans of time, such as months,
years, or decades.
? Nonrenewable resources take millions of years
to form and accumulate.
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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources
? Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons that may be used
as fuel, including coal, oil, and natural gas.
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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• The Basics
• Formed when heat and pressure transform plant
  material over millions of years
• Four stages of development peat, lignite,
  bituminus coal, anthracite
• Used to generate electricity and production of
  steel
• Surface mines vs underground mines vs mountaintop
  removal

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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• ADVANTAGES
• Plentiful
• In US, can provide about 450 years
• Cheap
• Electricity
• Versatile
• Many Jobs!

• DISADVANTAGES
• Dirty
• Acid rain from the sulfur when burning coal
• Releases greenhouse gases
• Inefficient
• About 30 efficient from coal ? electricity

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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• The Basics
• Formed from remains of plants and animals that
  were buried in ancient seas
• Formation begins when large quantities of remains
  become buried in ocean floor sediments, over
  millions of years chemical rxns slowly tranform
  some of the organic remains into the liquid and
  gas forms
• Oil Traps geologic structure that allows large
  amounts of fluids to accumulate stops upward
  movement of oil and gas

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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• Oil Traps
• All have 2 things in common
• Permeable reservoir rock
• Allows oil and gas to collect in large quantities
  
• Cap rock
• Near impenetrable and so keeps oil and gas from
  escaping to surface
• Anticline is an uparched series of sedimentary
  rock layers

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Anticlines Are Common Oil Traps
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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• ADVANTAGES
• Plentiful
• Easy to transport because liquid
• Relatively inexpensive

• DISADVANTAGES
• Carbon emissions
• Recovery process not efficient enough
• Drilling endangers the environment and ecosystem
• Spills

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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• ADVANTAGES
• Burns cleaner than coal and oil
• Inexpensive
• 70 less CO2 than other fossil fuels

• DISADVANTAGES
• Inability to recover all in-place gas from
  producible deposit
• Lack of technology

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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• Fuels derived from tar sand and oils shales could
  become good substitutes for dwindling petroleum
  supplies.
• Tar sands mixtures of clay and sand combined
  with water and varying amounts of black, thick
  tar called bitumen
• Cant be pumped out easily
• Requires lots of water
• Can lead to pollution in toxic disposal ponds
• inefficient

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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• Oil Shale
• Rock that contains waxy mixture of hydrocarbons
  called kerogen
• Half of worlds supply in Green River Formation
  in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah

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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources
? Some of the most important mineral deposits
form through igneous processes and from
hydrothermal solutions.

• Ore is a useful metallic mineral that can be
  mined at a profit.

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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources
? gold, silver, copper, mercury lead, platinum,
and nickel just a few deposits produced by
igneous processes
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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• Hot water
• Hydrothermal deposits form from hot, metal-rich
  fluids that are left during the last stages of
  movement and cooling of magma
• Examples gold deposit in South Dakota, lead,
  zinc, silver deposits in Idaho, Copper deposits
  in Michigan

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Mineral-Rich Hot Water Seeps into Rock Fractures
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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• Formed when eroded heavy minerals settle quickly
  from moving water while less dense particles
  remain suspended and continue to move
• Usually involve minerals that are heavy but also
  durable and chemically resistant
• Common sites inside of bends in streams, cracks,
  depressions, and other streambed irregularities
• Gold is best known

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4.1 Energy and Mineral Resources

• Nonmetallic mineral resources are extracted and
  processed either for the nonmetallic elements
  they contain or for their physical and chemical
  properties.
• Two main groups building materials industrial
  materials
• Examples aggregates, fluorite, fertilizers

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Uses of Nonmetallic Minerals
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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources
? Solar energy has two advantages
1. Solar energys fuel is free.
2. Solar energy is non-polluting.
? Solar energy has disadvantages
1. Solar energy is not cheap!
2. Not always sunny-problems with battery/storage
3. Inefficient (10-20)
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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources

• How some work
• Active Solar collector
• Roof mounted devices, collect heat from the sun
  that can be transferred to areas where it is
  needed by circulating air or liquids through
  piping
• Also used to heat water

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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources

• How some work
• Photovoltaic (solar) cells
• Convert sunlights energy into electricity

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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources
? In nuclear fission, the nuclei of heavy atoms
such as uranium-235 are bombarded with neutrons.
? The uranium nuclei split into smaller nuclei
and emit neutrons and heat energy.
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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources

• ADVANTAGES
• No emissions
• Fuel can be recycled
• Inexpensive
• Fairly abudnant

• DISADVANTAGES
• Potential of high risk disaster
• Where to put waste
• Earthquakes can cause damage and leaks at plants
• National Security issues
• NON -RENEWABLE

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Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant
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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources

• In the next 50 to 60 years, wind power could meet
  between 5 to 10 percent of the countrys demand
  for electricity.
• Fastest growing alternate energy source

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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources

• ADVANTAGES
• Abundant
• Not many emissions (still need steel that is
  produced from coal)

• DISADVANTAGES
• Unpredictable
• Turbines may be noisy
• Space availability

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Wind Turbines
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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources
? Hydroelectric power is the power generated by
falling water.
? The water held in a reservoir behind a dam is a
form of stored energy that can be released
through the dam to produce electric power.

• The strong water flow that results drives
  turbines and electric generators.
• Negative effects sedimentation, natural water
  flow, harms fish
• Weve built all the dams we can 98 of US rivers
  are dammed

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Glen Canyon Dam
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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources
? Geothermal energy is harnessed by tapping
natural underground reservoirs of steam and hot
water.

• Hot water is used directly for heating and to
  turn turbines that generate electric power.
• Iceland gets 100 of energy from geothermal
• No harmful products, little maintenance after
  construction of plants
• Cant be built everywhere

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The Geysers Is the Worlds Largest Electrical
Geothermal Facility
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4.2 Alternate Energy Sources
? Tidal power is harnessed by constructing a dam
across the mouth of a bay or an estuary in
coastal areas.
? The strong in-and-out flow of tidal water
drives turbines and electric generators.
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Tidal Dams
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4.3 Water, Air, and Land Resources

• Each day, people use fresh water for drinking,
  cooking, bathing, and growing food.
• Water covers 71 of the Earths surface
• lt1 of water is usable fresh water

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4.3 Water, Air, and Land Resources
? Freshwater Pollution

• Point source pollution comes from a known and
  specific location, such as factory pipes.

• Nonpoint source pollution is pollution that does
  not have a specific point of origin.

• Runoff is the water that flows over the land
  rather than seeping into the ground, often
  carrying nonpoint source pollution.

? Water pollution can lead to birth defects,
cancer, diseases, kill aquatic organisms and
disrupt ecosystems
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Major Types of Water Pollution
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4.3 Water, Air, and Land Resources
? The chemical composition of the atmosphere
helps maintain life on Earth.
? Pollution in the Air

• The increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
  has altered the carbon cycle and contributed to
  global warmingthe unnatural warming of the lower
  atmosphere.

• Through a series of chemical reactions, these
  pollutants in the air are converted into acids
  that are a major cause of acid precipitation.

? EPA estimates that as many as 200,000 deaths
each year are associated with outdoor air
pollution
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4.3 Water, Air, and Land Resources

• Burning of fossil fuels also produces Carbon
  Dioxide
• Global Warming could result in big changes in
  Earths environment
• These changes could include melting glaciers,
  rise in sea level, flooding of coastal areas
• Chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) once used in air
  conditioners and plastic foam production destroy
  ozone in the stratosphere layer of the atmosphere
• Could result in increased health problems like
  cataracts and skin cancer because more of the
  suns UV radiation would reach Earths surface

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Major Primary Pollutants and Their Sources
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4.3 Water, Air, and Land Resources
? Earths land provides soil and forests, as well
as mineral and energy resources
? Damage to Land Resources

• Mines produce many mineral resources, but mines
  are destroying, soil, vegetation, and Earths
  contours.

• Mines also cause soil erosion and pollution that
  contaminates soil and water and destroys
  ecosystems.

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4.4 Protecting Resources
? Conservation is the careful use of resources.
? Pollution prevention means stopping pollution
from entering the environment.
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4.4 Protecting Resources
? Starting in the 1970s, the federal government
passed several laws to prevent or decrease
pollution and protect resources.

• In 1972, the Clean Water Act (CWA) required
  industries to reduce or eliminate point source
  pollution into surface waters.

• The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 helped
  protect drinking resources.

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Preventing Water Pollution
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4.4 Protecting Resources
? In the 1970s, Congress passed the Clean Air
Act, the nations most important air pollution
law.

• National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
  established for six criteria pollutants known
  to cause health problems carbon monoxide,
  ozone, lead, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and
  particulates (fine particles).

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Saving Energy
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4.4 Protecting Resources
? Protecting land resources involves preventing
pollution and managing land resources wisely.

• Compost is partly decomposed organic material
  that can be used as fertilizer.

• Recycling is the collecting and processing of
  used items so that they can be made into new
  products.

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4.4 Protecting Resources

• 425,000,000 tons of municipal waste per year
• Average American produces 4.6 lbs of trash per
  day
• US recycles about 1/3 of all waste
• 53 paper products recycled
• 95 energy saved by recycling an aluminum can
  compared with manufacturing a new one