Textbook notes

Chapter 16 Section 1


A mineral is a naturally occuring usually inorganic solid that has a characteristic chemical composition, an orderly internal structure, and a characteristic set of physical properties.
Minerals are made up of atoms.
Ore Minerals: Minerals that are valuable and economical to extract are known as ore minerals. 
Metallic Minerals: Ore minerals are either metalliic or non metallic. Metals conduct electricity have shiny surfaces, and are opaque. The are mostly negative
Non Mentallic Minerals: Tend to be good insulators, have shiny or dull surfaces, and may allow light to pass through them.
Non metals are among the most widely used minerals in the world.

Section 2
Mining companies can indentify areas where there is a high likelihood of inding valuable mineral resources inquantities that are worth mining.
Exploring rock for mineralization is the first step in finding an ore deposit.
Planes are carry instrunments that indentify paterrns in gravity, magnetism, or photographs of an area.
Subsurface mining: Earth's surface are mined by using Subsurface mining methods.
Surface mining methods are used when ore deposits are located close to Earth's surface.
When rock weatehrs and disintegates, minerals within the rock are released.
Placer deposits: These minerals are concentrated by wind and water into surface deposits called placer deposits

Section 3
Because of the potential environmental impacts of mining on such a large scale, mining has become one of the most heavily regulated indistries in the United States.
The Environmental impacts of mining: In the United states, the federal and state governments and mining companies are spending billions ofdollars to clean up abandoned mines.
Surface mining can cause both air pollution and nouse pollution. Noise is crated by the equpment taht is used in a mine as well as by blasting.
Because of air and nouse pollution, most surface mines are not located near urban populatins.
Water resources can be negatively impacted by mining. Coal or minerals that contain a lot of sulfur can cause a similar problem.
Displacement of wildlife: Removing soil from a surface mine site strpis awat all plant life. Dredging can negatively affect aquatic ecosystems and physically chagne the bottoms of rivers.
Subsidence: The sinking of regions of the ground with little or no horizontal movement.
Reclamation: The process of returningland to its original or better condition after mining is completed is called reclamation.

Chapter 17 section 1

The fuels we use to run cars, ships, planes and factories and to produce electricity are natural resources.
Fossil Fuels are the remains of ancient organisms that changedinto coal, oil, or natural gas. Fossil fuels are central to life in modern societies.
The energy in fuels is often converted into electical energy in order to pwoer machines.
The quality of coal varies.
An electric generator is a machine that converts mechanical energy, or motion, into elevtrical energy.
Everything from the food you eat to the clothes you wear requires energy to produce.
There are dramatic diffrences in fuel use and efficiency throughout the world.
Petrolcum: Oil that is pumped from the ground is also know as crude oil, or petroleum.

Section 2
Nuclear power plants get their power from nuclear energy, the energy within the nucleus of an atom.
These collisons cause the nuclei to split in a process called nuclear fission.
A nuclear reactor is surrounded by a thick pressure vessel that is fulled with a cooling fluid. The pressure vessel is designed to contain the fission products in case of an accident.
Nuclear energy has many advantages. Nuclear fuel is a very concentrated energy source.
Building and maintaining a safe reactor is very expensive. As a resuly nuclear power is no longer competivive with other energy.
The difficulty of finding a safe place to store nuclear wastes is one of the greatest disadvantages of nuclear power. The fuel cycle of uranium products fission priducts that can remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years.
Nuclear fission: One possible future energy source is nuclear fusion.  Nuclear fusion occurs when lightweight atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus and relase tremendous amounts of energy.