Download Geology and Nonrenewable Resources Notes

1
APES
Mr. Koeval
Name _______________________
Date _______________ Per _____
Geology and Nonrenewable Mineral and Fuel Resources
I.
Geologic processes
What is geology?
Define and/or diagram:
crust
Lithosphere
Mantle
Asthenosphere
Core
II.
Internal and External Geologic Processes
A. Plate tectonics
What are tectonic plates?
What do they move upon?
What is plate tectonics?
What sort of geological features are created by the movements of these plates?
What sorts of hazards occur at plate boundaries?
How are these plates related to the theory of evolution?
B. Plate tectonics
Define:
Divergent plate boundary
Convergent plate boundary (include subduction and trench formation)
Transform fault
Along what types of boundaries to earthquakes usually occur?
C. Erosion and Weathering (this will be handled in IV below
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III.
Natural Geologic Hazards
A. Earfquakes
What is an earfquake?
Richter scale
Tsunami
B. Volcanoes
What is a volcano?
How can a volcano influence climate?
IV.
Minerals, Rocks, and the Rock Cycle
A. Types of Rocks
Define:
Weathering
Physical/mechanical weathering
Frost wedging
Chemical weathering
Biological weathering
B. Nonrenewable Mineral Resources
What are nonrenewable mineral resources?
What are the three kinds? Include an example of each.
What is ore?
Define these types of resources:
Identified
Reserves
Undiscovered
Other
When the supply of a resource is reported to the public, which of those 4 is usually used?
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V.
Finding, Removing, and Processing Nonrenewable Mineral Resources
A. Removing Mineral Deposits
1.
Surface mining
What is overburden and spoil?
What is open-pit mining?
What is dredging?
What is area strip mining?
What is contour strip mining?
What is mountaintop removal?
What is the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977?
What is subsurface mining? How is it better and how is it worse compared to
surface mining?
VI.
Environmental Effects of Extracting and Using Mineral Resources
A. Environmental Impacts of Using Mineral Resources
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B. Life Cycle of a Nonrenewable Metal Resource
Define these terms as you trace the life of a nonrenewable metal resource.
ORE
_________________________
SMELTING
____________________
____________________
VARIOUS PRODUCTS
____________________
____________________
_________________________
Piled in piles called ___________________
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C. Exhaustion of Supplies vs. Environmental Damage
Which is worse in the eyes of many environmentalists?
In terms of cost of extraction, what happens economically as the grade of an ore
decreases?
In terms of cost of extraction, what happens environmentally as the grade of an ore
decreases?
What does cyanide have to do with gold?
VII.
Supplies of Mineral Resources
A. Will There Be Enough?
What is economic depletion?
What are the five options in dealing with economic depletion?
What is depletion time?
Are these values certain? What can influence them?
B. The Economics of Mineral Resource Supplies
C. Some Possibilities for Obtaining More Minerals
1.
Mining Public Lands
2.
Mining low grade ores
What are three negative environmental impacts of mining low grade ores?
What is biomining? What is good about it? What is bad about it?
3.
Mining the Ocean
Seawater is full of minerals, so why can’t we mine them?
What are three problems with mining the sea floor?
4.
Finding substitutes
Identify at least one pro and one con to substitutes.
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Nonrenewable Energy Resources
I.
Evaluating Energy Resources
A. What types of energy do we use?
1.
99% of energy comes from the ___________________
Directly from _____________ and indirectly from:
2.
Commercial Energy
Energy source
World
Coal
Oil
Natural gas
Nuclear
Hydr/geo/solar/wind
Biomass
3.
History and Future
B. Evaluating energy sources: things to consider
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
C. Net energy: the only energy that counts
1.
2.
U.S.
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II.
Oil
A. Extraction and processing
1.
What is it?
Chemically
Biologically
2.
Fractional distillation
B. Locations; OPEC = jerks
C. Depletion time
D. Pros and Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
E. Oil from Tar sand and Oil Shale: Some great possibilities?
1.
What are they?
Tar sand
Oil shale
2.
III.
Pros and cons
Natural Gas (not the Uncle Bubba kind)
A. What is it?
B. Who has it?
C. Pros and Cons
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IV.
Coal: Best of the best, worst of the worst
A. What is it?
B. Where is it?
C. How is it used?
D. Pros and Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
E. Synfuels
V.
Nuclear Energy: So misunderstood
A. The process
B. The plant—see diagram
C. The promise (history, present, predictions, and reality)
1.
History
2.
Predictions vs present reality
3.
Why this result?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
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D. Pros and Cons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
E. Disposal of radioactive waste
1.
low level
2.
High level
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
F.
What to do with old nuclear power plants
G. Affordability of nuclear power
H. Fusion
I.
Future
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VI.
On your own…
A. Identify the basic elements of the events and aftermaths of the following pivotal
environmental events. These are your notes; you need not write in free response/essay
format if you do not wish to do so.
Where
When
1.
Chernobyl
2.
Three Mile Island
(TMI)
3.
Tokiamura,
Japan
4.
Baia Mare
B.
What happened? How? Why?
Identify 3 states with major oil deposits.
C. With natural gas deposits.
D. With coal deposits
E. What three countries use the most oil?
F.
How many operational nuclear reactors are there in North Carolina?
G. In what state is Yucca Mountain?
H. What state has the most operational nuclear reactors?
I.
Identify and define all parts of the nuclear reactor below according to the text.