Miller Living in the Environment 17ed chapter 14: Geology and Nonrenewable Mineral Resources Vocab
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Created by:
rdiamond Teacher on February 18, 2012
Subjects:
science, a.p. environmental science, environmental science
Description:
Miller 17th ed Living in the Environment chapter 14 vocab
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32 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 geology | the science devoted to the study of dynamic processes taking place on the earth's surface and its interior. |
| core | the earth's innermost zone. It is extremely hot and has a solid inner part, surrounded by a liquid core of molten or semisolid material. |
| mantle | a thick, solid rock zone around earth's core. |
| asthenosphere | a zone in the mantle of hot, partly melted rock that flows and can be deformed like soft plastic |
| crust | the outermost and thinnest zone of the earth. |
| lithosphere | a combination of the crust and the rigid, outermost part of the mantle above the asthenosphere. |
| tectonic plates | huge rigid plates of lithosphere that move extremely slowly atop the asthenosphere. |
| weathering | an external geologic process that is physical, chemical, and biological in nature that breaks down rocks into smaller particles that help to build soil. |
| volcano | where magma reaches the earth's surface through a central vent. |
| earthquake | an abrupt movement on an existing fault that releases accumulated energy in the form of vibrations (seismic waves). |
| mineral | an element or inorganic compound that occurs naturally in teh earth's crust as a crystalline solid or one that has regularly repeating internal arrangement of its atoms. |
| rock | a solid combination of one or more minerals found in the earth's crust. |
| sedimentary rock | is a rock made of sediments- dead plant and animal remains and tiny particles of weathered and eroded rocks. |
| igneous rock | rock that forms below or on the earth's surface when magma wells up from the earth's upper mantle or deep crust and then cools and hardens. |
| metamorphic rock | a rock that forms when a preexisting rock is subject to high temperature, high pressures, chemically active fluids, or a combination of these agents. |
| rock cycle | the interaction of physical and chemical processes that change rock from one type to another. |
| mineral resource | a concentration of naturally occurring material from the earth's crust that we can extract and process into raw materials and useful products at an affordable cost. |
| ore | is a rock that contains a large enough concentration of a particular mineral- often a metal -to make it profitable for mining and processing. |
| high-grade ore | ore that contains a large enough concentration of the desired mineral. |
| low-grade ore | ore that contains a small concentration of the desired mineral. |
| reserves | identified resources from which we can extract the mineral profitably at current prices. |
| surface mining | where materials that are lying over a deposit are removed to expose the resource for processing. |
| overburden | soil and rock overlying a useful mineral deposit that is removed. |
| spoils | piles of overburden waste material. |
| open-pit mining | a type of surface mining where machines dig very large holes and remove metal ores, as well as sand, gravel, and stone. |
| strip mining | a way to extract mineral deposits that lie in horizontal beds close to earth's surface. |
| area strip mining | a type of strip mining used when the area is fairly flat. The overburden is removed, the ore taken, then another cut is made and so on. |
| contour strip mining | a type of strip mining used mostly to mine coal on hilly or mountainous terrain. Machines are used to cut series of terraces into the side of a hill, overburden is removed and placed as a "highwall" on the previous terrace, then the ore is removed. |
| mountaintop removal | a type of surface mining that uses explosives, earth movers, large power shovels, and other machines with huge buckets, called draglines to expose seams of coal under a mountain. |
| subsurface mining | a way to mine deep deposits (too deep to extract by surface mining) by using tunnels and shafts. |
| smelting | heating ores to release metals. |
| depletion time | the time it takes to use up a certain proportion (usually 80%) of the reserves of a mineral at a given rate of use. |
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