This document provides an overview of geology, nonrenewable resources, and mining. It discusses how the Earth's core, mantle, and crust were formed, and how tectonic plate movement leads to geological events like earthquakes and volcanoes. It also describes the rock cycle and types of rocks. Further, it outlines various mineral resources and how mining extracts and processes these resources, with significant environmental impacts. It notes concerns around the depletion of resources and sustainability of mining practices.

1. Geology and Nonrenewable
Minerals
Ch. 14, part 1

2. Lecture Tool
Read over the clues in the crossword
puzzle
During lecture, fill in the terms as they
come up
At the end of class, turn in puzzles
Two correct puzzles chosen at random
for a ticket

3. Our Earth
 Cyanide heap
leaching
 Level mountains
and crush all the
rock
 Pile it up and spray
it with cyanide salts
 Drain the solution
into storage ponds
 Extract the tiny bit
of gold in them
 Pollution…
Gold mine with cyanide
leach piles and ponds in
South Dakota

4. Earth’s geological processes
Geology - study of earth’s processes
Planet made up of core, mantle, and
crust
Solid, HOT
Semi-solid
Solid rock,
mostly

5. Mantle has top layer called
asthenosphere - like silly putty
This flows and pulls on the crust

6. Crust is very thin - called lithosphere
Oceanic crust
Continental crust

7. Crust made up of pieces called tectonic
plates
– Move slowly - about the rate your fingernails
grow
– Geologic activity mostly at plate boundaries
Earthquakes, volcanoes, etc

8. Plate move away from each other =
divergent plates
– Magma flows up through the cracks
– Creates oceanic ridges

9. Plates move toward each other =
convergent plates
– Denser oceanic plate forced under lighter
continental crust - called subduction
– A trench forms here and mountains are
built up

10. Plates slide past each other =
transform fault
– Cause earthquakes
– Most in ocean
– San Andreas fault in CA

11. Weathering and erosion
These processes
break down the
earth
– Wind
– Water
– Glaciers

12. Volcanoes
At subduction zones
Kills people, wipes out habitat and
animals
Leaves behind beautiful mountains,
lakes, enriches the soil
Mt. St. Helens in WA before & after Crater Lake in OR

13. Earthquakes
Occur along faults
Measured on the Richter scale - a log
scale

14. Tsunamis
Series of huge waves caused by a
sudden drop or rise in the sea floor

15. An area of Indonesia before the tsunami

16. and after…

17. The Rock Cycle
Crust is minerals and rocks
– Minerals like NaCl (salt) and Au (gold)
– Rocks are solid combos of minerals (quartz)
3 kinds of rock:
– Igneous rock - cooled, hardened magma
Granite, lava rock
– Sedimentary rock - made of compressed sediment
Sandstone, shale, limestone
– Metamorphic rock - when existing rock is subjected to
tremendous heat/pressure that changes its properties
Slate, marble

18. SLOW
Concentrates
nonrenewable
mineral
resources
essential to life

19. Mineral Resources
Mineral resource = a
concentration of a mineral
in the crust that can be
harvested and made into
useful products
Nonrenewable resource
Examples:
– Metallic minerals - coal,
iron, copper
– Nonmetallic minerals -
sand, limestone

20. Ore - rock with a good concentration of
a desirable mineral in it
– High grade ore - lots
– Low grade ore - less
High grade
gold ore

21. examples
 Aluminum - packaging,
building
 Steel - an alloy of iron
for building, computers,
cars, oil drilling bits,
pipelines
 Platinum - electrical
equipment
 Gold - electrical
equipment, jewelry,
coins, medical implants
 Sand - glass, bricks,
concrete
 Gravel - roads,
cement
 Phosphates -
fertilizers,
detergents

22. Harvesting minerals takes TONS of
energy and generates a lot of pollution
Harvesting minerals creates TONS of
jobs and generates income
Biggest issue: environmentalBiggest issue: environmental
damagedamage
– High grade ore - get good bang for buck
– Low grade ore - use more energy &
cause more damage to get less

23. Harvesting mineral resources
 Surface mining - for minerals near the surface; 90%
of non-fuel resources in USA obtained this way
– Heavy machinery strips away overburden - the soil and rock
on top of the mineral deposit
This is discarded as spoils
– Gold from streams - forests cleared for equipment & land
dredged up from river bottom is left on land - called tailings

24. Types of
surface
mining
 Open-pit mining -
machines dig holes and
remove ore
 Strip mining - good for
deposits that lay in long
strips
 Area strip mining - on
flat land, whole areas
cleared
 Contour strip mining -
for hills
 Mountain top removal -
just what it sounds like!

25. Subsurface mining
For coal and metals deep underground
Dig deep vertical shafts
Blast open tunnels and chambers to
reach deposit
Chilean miners
trapped in copper
mine for 69 days
in 2010

26. Effects of mining on the planet
 Scars/damages the earth
 Spoils/tailings erode away
 Spoils/tailings dumped into waterways
and other areas
 Loss of topsoil means plants can’t
regrow there easily
 Toxic chemicals (arsenic, mercury)
used to process orehttp://appvoices.org/

27. http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mapd

28. Mining in developing nations
 Small scale
 Usually illegal
 Very destructive
– Hydraulic mining - water
cannons wash away entire
hillsides to harvest gold
– Chemicals and sediment
cause massive pollution
– Workers enslaved or work
under very dangerous
conditions for little or no
money

29. Removing mineral from ore
 Ore mineral - what we want
 Rest of the rock called gangue
 Getting ore out of gangue requires
toxic chemicals and leaves behind
tailings that can blow into other
areas
 Smelting uses heat to extract the
mineral from the ore - produces lots
of air pollution, acidifies soil, leaves
solid and liquid hazardous waste
 Chemical extraction uses cyanide

30. Summitville
Gold Mine
in Colorado
 Canadian
company bought
land from US
gov’t
 Spent $1 million
prepping the
area for mining
 Harvested $98
million in gold
 Declared
bankruptcy,
closed up shop,
and left us with
the mess

31. Clean up
 We can restore land in surface mines but
very expensive ($70 billion just in US)
 Subsurface mining not as damaging but…
– Way more dangerous for workers
– Subsidence

32. Mining waste
 Mining produces 75% of all solid waste in the
US
 Causes major air and water pollution when
wind and water carry chemical laced spoils to
new areas
– 40% of western watersheds polluted from mining
– Mining in US accounts for half of all air pollution
Ohio River

33. How long will our mineral
resources last?
Who has them?
– US, Canada, Russia, South Africa,
Australia supply most of the mineral
resources used in the world
– US, Germany, Russia use 75% of the
minerals but have just 8% of the
population

34. Depletion of mineral resources
 Economic depletion - so little
left it is no longer worth it to
harvest it
– Then we must recycle/reuse, use
less, find a substitute, or do without
 Depletion time - the time it takes
to use up 80% of the reserves at
a given rate of use
– Depends on recycle rates, new
discoveries of reserves, prices, etc

36. US General Mining Law of
1872
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20