Chapter 15 Geologic Resources: Nonrenewable Mineral and Energy Resources Flashcards

733031033	mineral resource	Concentration of naturally occurring solid, liquid, or gaseous material in or on the earth's crust in a form and amount such that extracting and converting it into useful materials or items is currently or potentially profitable. Mineral resources are classified as metallic (such as iron and tin ores) or nonmetallic (such as fossil fuels, sand, and salt).
733031034	identified resource	Deposits of a particular mineral-bearing material of which the location, quantity, and quality are known or have been estimated from direct geological evidence and measurements
733031035	undiscovered resource	Potential supplies of a particular mineral resource, believed to exist because of geologic knowledge and theory, although specific locations, quality, and amounts are unknown.
733031036	reserves	Resources that have been identified and from which a usable mineral can be extracted profitably at present prices with current mining technology.
733031037	other resources	Identified and undiscovered resources not classified as reserves.
733031038	ore	Part of a metal-yielding material that can be economically and legally extracted at a given time. An ore typically contains two parts: the ore mineral, which contains the desired metal, and waste mineral material (gangue).
733031039	surface mining	Removing soil, subsoil, and other strata and then extracting a mineral deposit found fairly close to the earth's surface.
733031040	overburden	Layer of soil and rock overlying a mineral deposit. Surface mining removes this layer.
733031041	open-pit mining	Removing minerals such as gravel, sand, and metal ores by digging them out of the earth's surface and leaving an open pit.
733031042	dredging	Type of surface mining in which chain buckets and draglines scrape up sand, gravel, and other surface deposits covered with water. It is also used to remove sediment from streams and harbors to maintain shipping channels.
733031043	area strip mining	Type of surface mining used where the terrain is flat. An earthmover strips away the overburden, and a power shovel digs a cut to remove the mineral deposit. After removal of the mineral, the trench is filled with overburden, and a new cut is made parallel to the previous one. The process is repeated over the entire site.
733031044	contour strip mining	Form of surface mining used on hilly or mountainous terrain. A power shovel cuts a series of terraces into the side of a hill. An earthmover removes the overburden, and a power shovel extracts the coal, with the overburden from each new terrace dumped onto the one below.
733031045	mountaintop removal	Type of surface mining that uses explosives, massive shovels, and even larger machinery called draglines to remove the top of a mountain to expose seams of coal underneath a mountain.
733031046	subsurface mining	Extraction of a metal ore or fuel resource such as coal from a deep underground deposit.
733031047	smelting	Process in which a desired metal is separated from the other elements in an ore mineral.
733031048	depletion time	The time it takes to use a certain fraction, usually 80%, of the known or estimated supply of a nonrenewable resource at an assumed rate of use. Finding and extracting the remaining 20% usually costs more than it is worth.
733031049	reserve-to-production ratio	Number of years reserves of a particular nonrenewable mineral will last at current annual production rates.
733031050	net energy	Total amount of useful energy available from an energy resource or energy system over its lifetime, minus the amount of energy used (the first energy law), automatically wasted (the second energy law), and unnecessarily wasted in finding, processing, concentrating, and transporting it to users.
733031051	crude oil (petroleum)	Gooey liquid consisting mostly of hydrocarbon compounds and small amounts of compounds that contain oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen. It is extracted from underground and sent to refineries where it is converted to heating oil, diesel fuel, gasoline, tar, and other materials.
733031052	petrochemicals	Chemicals obtained by refining (distilling) crude oil. They are used as raw materials in manufacturing most industrial chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, synthetic fibers, paints, medicines, and many other products.
733031053	natural gas	Underground deposits of gases consisting of 50-90% by weight methane gas (CH4) and small amounts of heavier gaseous hydrocarbon compounds such as propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10).
733031054	liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)	Mixture of liquefied propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10) gas removed from natural gas and used as a fuel.
733031055	liquefied natural gas (LNG)	Natural gas converted to liquid form by cooling to a very low temperature.
733031056	coal	Solid, combustible mixture of organic compounds with 30-98% carbon by weight, mixed with various amounts of water and small amounts of sulfur and nitrogen compounds. It is formed in several stages as the remains of plants are subjected to heat and pressure over millions of years.
733031057	breeder nuclear fission reactors	Nuclear fission reactor that produces more nuclear fuel than it consumes by converting nonfissionable uranium-238 into fissionable plutonium-239