1. Energy and Mineral Resources
Chapter 4, Section 1

2. 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 won’t be any more
Common examples are coal, oil, natural gas, iron, copper, uranium, and gold

3. 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.

4. 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 coal—much of which is high in sulfur—creates 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

5. U.S. Coal Fields

6. Oil Trap

7. 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.

8. 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

9. Oil Shale in the Green River Formation

10. 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 Earth’s 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

11. Hydrothermal Solutions

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

14. 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 groups—building 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

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

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