2. Geology and Nonrenewable Mineral Resources
Chapter 15
Geology and Nonrenewable Mineral Resources

3. GEOLOGIC PROCESSES The earth’s interior consists of:
Core: innermost zone with solid inner core and molten outer core that is extremely hot. (Iron and Nickel)
Mantle: solid rock with a rigid outer part (asthenosphere) that is melted pliable rock.
Crust: Outermost zone which underlies the continents. (Silicon and oxygen SiO2)

4. Tectonic plate Inner core
Spreading center
Collision between two continents
Oceanic tectonic plate
Ocean trench
Oceanic tectonic plate
Plate movement
Plate movement
Tectonic plate
Oceanic crust
Oceanic crust
Subduction zone
Continental crust
Continental crust
Material cools as it reaches the outer mantle
Cold dense material falls back through mantle
Hot material rising through the mantle
Mantle convection cell
Figure 15.3
Natural capital: the earth’s crust is made up of a mosaic of huge rigid plates, called tectonic plates, which move around in response to forces in the mantle.
Mantle
Two plates move towards each other. One is subducted back into the mantle on a falling convection current.
Hot outer core
Inner core
Fig. 15-3, p. 337

5. Oceanic crust (lithosphere) Abyssal plain Continental slope
Folded mountain belt
Volcanoes
Abyssal plain
Abyssal floor
Oceanic ridge
Abyssal floor
Abyssal hills
Trench
Craton
Oceanic crust (lithosphere)
Abyssal plain
Continental slope
Continental shelf
Continental rise
Mantle (lithosphere)
Continental crust (lithosphere)
Mantle (lithosphere)
Figure 15.2
Natural capital: major features of the earth’s crust and upper mantle. The lithosphere, composed of the crust and outermost mantle, is rigid and brittle. The asthenosphere, a zone in the mantle, can be deformed by heat and pressure.
Mantle (asthenosphere)
Fig. 15-2, p. 336

6. Animation: Geological Forces
PLAY
ANIMATION

7. Figure 15.4
Natural capital: the earth’s major tectonic plates. The extremely slow movements of these plates cause them to grind into one another at convergent plate boundaries, move apart from one another at divergent plate boundaries, and slide past one another at transform plate boundaries. QUESTION: What plate are you floating on?
Fig. 15-4, p. 338

8. GEOLOGIC PROCESSES
The San Andreas Fault is an example of a transform fault.
Figure 15-5

9. Wearing Down and Building Up the Earth’s Surface
Weathering is an external process that wears the earth’s surface down.
Figure 15-6

10. MINERALS, ROCKS, AND THE ROCK CYCLE
Mineral resource: is a concentration of naturally occurring material in or on the earth’s crust that can be extracted and processed into useful materials at an affordable cost.

11. Rock Cycle
Figure 15-8

12. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF USING MINERAL RESOURCES
The extraction, processing, and use of mineral resources has a large environmental impact.
Figure 15-9

13. Natural Capital Degradation
Extracting, Processing, and Using Nonrenewable Mineral and Energy Resources
Steps
Environmental effects
Mining
Disturbed land; mining accidents; health hazards, mine waste dumping, oil spills and blowouts; noise; ugliness; heat
Exploration, extraction
Processing
Transportation, purification, manufacturing
Solid wastes; radioactive material; air, water, and soil pollution; noise; safety and health hazards; ugliness; heat
Use
Figure 15.10
Natural capital degradation: some harmful environmental effects of extracting, processing, and using nonrenewable mineral and energy resources. The energy required to carry out each step causes additional pollution and environmental degradation.
Transportation or transmission to individual user, eventual use, and discarding
Noise; ugliness; thermal water pollution; pollution of air, water, and soil; solid and radioactive wastes; safety and health hazards; heat
Fig , p. 344

14. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF USING MINERAL RESOURCES
A variety of methods are used based on mineral depth.
Surface mining: shallow deposits are removed.
Subsurface mining: deep deposits are removed.
(disturbs less than 1/10th of the land & produces less waste)

15. Open-pit Mining
Machines dig holes and remove ores, sand, gravel, and stone.
Toxic groundwater can accumulate at the bottom.
Figure 15-11

16. Area Strip Mining
Earth movers strips away overburden, and giant shovels removes mineral deposit.
Often leaves highly erodible hills of rubble called spoil banks.
Figure 15-12

17. Contour Strip Mining Used on hilly or mountainous terrain.
Unless the land is restored, a wall of dirt is left in front of a highly erodible bank called a highwall.
Figure 15-13

19. Mountaintop Removal
Machinery removes the tops of mountains to expose coal.
The resulting waste rock and dirt are dumped into the streams and valleys below.
Figure 15-14

22. Mining Impacts
Metal ores are smelted or treated with (potentially toxic) chemicals to extract the desired metal.
Figure 15-15

23. Mining impacts Scarring and disruption of land surface Subsidence
Major air and water pollution
(5.5 metric tons of gold to make 2 wedding rings )
Acid mine drainage
(rain plus sulfuric acid from bacteria action on iron sulfide)
Mining industry produces more toxic emissions than any other industry

24. AMD

26. Removing Metals from Ores
Ore=rock and mineral
Gangue=waste material
Tailings=large piles of solid waste
Smelting=heating or chemicals removes mineral from ore. (cyanide salts are used) YUCK!
(very pollutive, sulfur dioxide and suspended particles)

27. Supplies of mineral resources
Economically depleted=cost more to find and process than its worth
5 choices: recycle, reuse, use less, find a substitute or do without
Depletion time=time it takes to use up 80% of mineral

28. Sustainable Use of Nonrenewable Minerals
Solutions
Sustainable Use of Nonrenewable Minerals
• Do not waste mineral resources.
• Recycle and reuse 60–80% of mineral resources.
• Include the harmful environmental costs of mining and processing minerals in the prices of items (full-cost pricing).
• Reduce subsidies for mining mineral resources.
• Increase subsidies for recycling, reuse, and finding less environmentally harmful substitutes.
• Redesign manufacturing processes to use less mineral resources and to produce less pollution and waste.
Figure 15.18
Solutions: ways to achieve more sustainable use of nonrenewable mineral resources. QUESTION: Which two of the solutions do you think are the most important?
• Have the mineral-based wastes of one manufacturing process become the raw materials for other processes.
• Sell services instead of things.
• Slow population growth.
Fig , p. 351

29. Sulfuric acid producer
Sludge
Pharmaceutical plant
Local farmers
Sludge
Greenhouses
Waste heat
Waste heat
Waste heat
Fish farming
Waste heat
Surplus natural gas
Electric power plant
Fly ash
Oil refinery
Surplus sulfur
Waste calcium sulfate
Figure 15.19
Solutions: the industrial ecosystem in Kalundborg, Denmark, reduces waste production by mimicking a natural food web. The wastes of one business become the raw materials for another. QUESTION: Is there an industrial ecosystem near where you live or go to school? If not, why not?
Waste heat
Cement manufacturer
Surplus natural gas
Sulfuric acid producer
Wallboard factory
Area homes
Fig , p. 352

30. Surface Mining Control and
Reclamation Act of 1977
-requires mining companies to restore surface
mined land by grading and replanting it.
-minimally successful
-first.....re-contour the land to it’s original topography
-next…..replenish topsoil with nutrients
-next…….replant native vegetation
-last….monitor the results for 5-10 years
(hard to accomplish in arid areas……why????)