Coombs - APES Chapter 15
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coombsbiology Plus on January 9, 2012
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APES ap environmental science Chapter vocal reviews tiff
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71 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Geology | study of dynamic processes that occur on earth's surface and interior |
| Core | most interior portion of the earth; extremely hot; solid inner core surrounded by liquid core of molten or semisolid material |
| Mantle | surrounds core but underneath the crust; mostly solid rock upper part but under this is the athenosphere made of melted, pliable rock that flows |
| Athenosphere | part of mantle made of melted rock; lies under solid rock portion of the mantle (closest to the core) |
| Crust | outmost and thinnest zone of the earth |
| Continental Crust | area of crust that is under land mass or continents as well as continental shelf of oceans |
| Oceanic Crust | area of crust that is under oceans; makes approximately 71% of earth's surface |
| Convection Cells | large volumes of rock material move in loops (hot goes up and forms new crust and gets pushed to side; cool moves across surface of earth and eventually back down to be reheated and remelted); causes plate tectonic movements |
| Tectonic Plates | dozen or so huge plates of crust move across surface of earth due to heating and cooling associated with Convection Cells |
| Magma | molten rock; material that tectonic plates "float" on and move along due to Convection Cells |
| Lithosphere | solid earth composed of crust and solid rock portion of the upper mantle (above the athenosphere) |
| Convergent Plate Boundary | two tectonic plates come together; can cause subduction - continental plate rides over and pushes oceanic plate down; also can cause mountain bulding when two continental plates collide and push each other up toward sky; creates mountains |
| Subduction | specific example of convergent plate boundary where more dense ocean plate is runs into less dense continental plate and the ocean plate is pushed back down into mantle |
| Subduction Zone | area where subduction takes place |
| Trench | occurs when two ocean plates converge |
| Divergent Plate Boundary | oceanic plates move away from one another; usually creates oceanic ridges from molten rock (magma) that flows up from the resulting cracks |
| Oceanic Ridges | created from divergent plate boundaries of oceanic plates; creates higher peaks and deeper canyons than the tallest mountains found on earth's surface |
| Tranform Fault | plates slide and grind past each other along a fracture or fault; ex: San Andreas Fault; usually cause earthquakes and volcanoes |
| External Processes | geologic changes based directly or indirectly on energy from sun or gravity (instead of heat in the earth's interior); ex: weathering, erosion, storm events, flooding, etc. |
| Internal Processes | geologic changes based directly or indirectly on heat from earth's interior; ex: volcanism, earthquakes, plate tectonics, etc. |
| Weathering | physical, chemical, biological processes that break down rocks and minerals into smaller particles and help build soil |
| Physical / Mechanical Weathering | large rock material, soil, or minerals are broken into smaller pieces |
| Frost Wedging | type of physical / mechanical weathering; water collects in spaces of rock, expands as it freezes, and breaks pieces of the rock off into smaller pieces |
| Chemical Weathering | chemical reactions "decompose" rocks, minerals, soil; oxygen, carbon dioxide, and moisture usually play a role; process accelerated by high moisture and high temperatures |
| Biological Weathering | conversion of rock, minerals, soil into smaller pieces by actions of living organisms; ex: lichens living on rocks produce chemicals that weather the rock; ex: roots growing into and rubbing agains rocks can break them into smaller pieces |
| Erosion | process where material is dissolved, loosened, or worn away from one part of the earth's surface and deposited elsewhere |
| Glaciers | slow flowing bodies of ice |
| Mass Wasting | rock and soil mass becomes detached from underlying material and move downhill due to gravity; ex: mudslides, avalanche, rockslides, mud flows, etc. |
| Mineral | element or inorganic compound that occurs naturally and is solid with a regular internal crystalline structure; ex: gold, silver, salt, quartz |
| Mineral Resource | concentration of naturally occuring material in or on earth's crust that can be extracted and processed into useful materials at an affordable cost |
| Fossil Fuels | type of mineral resource; ex: coal, oil, natural gas |
| Metallic Minerals | type of mineral resource; ex: aluminum, iron, copper |
| Nonmetallic minerals | type of mineral resource; ex: sand, gravel, limestone |
| Identified Resources | deposits of nonrenewable mineral resource with a known location, quantity, or quality and existence is based on geologic evidence and measurement |
| Undiscovered Resources | potential supply of mineral resource assumed to exist based on geologic knowledge and theory but unknown specific locations, quality, and amounts |
| Reserves | identified resources from which a usable nonrenewable mineral can be extracted profitably at current prices |
| Other Resources | undiscovered resources and identified resources not classified as reserves |
| Rock | solid combination of one or more minerals that is part of earth's crust |
| Ore | rock that contains large concentration of a particular mineral (often metal) and can be mined to extract the desired mineral |
| High-Grade Ore | rock that contains fairly large amount of desired mineral |
| Low-Grade Ore | rock that contains smaller amounts of desired mineral |
| Igneous Rock | forms below or on earth's surface when molten rock (magma) wells up from the earth's upper mantle or deep crust then cools and hardens; ex granite, lava rock |
| Sedimentary Rock | forms from sediment produced when existing rocks are weathered and eroded into small pieces, transported by water, wind or gravity downstream, downwind, or downhill; layers deposited over time are compressed and form new rock; ex: sandstone, shale, dolomite, limestone |
| Metamorphic Rock | forms when preexisting rock is exposed to high temperatures, high pressure, chemically active fluids, or a combination of these; ex: coal, slate, marble |
| Grade | the percent metal content of an ore |
| Surface Mining | method used to extract surface deposits or shallow deposits of minerals; ex: open pit, strip, mountain top removal |
| Subsurface Mining | method used to extract deep deposits of minerals |
| Overburden | soil and rock that cover the valuable mineral / ore to be extracted during surface mining |
| Spoils | discarded waste material that is heaped up from overburden that has been removed during surface mining |
| Open-Pit Mining | type of surface mining where expansive holes are dug down, each hole smaller than the next so as to "terrace" the surface mine |
| Strip Mining | type of surface mining useful for removing mineral deposits that lie close to surface in large horizontal beds |
| Area Strip Mining | type of surface mining used when terrain is fairly flat |
| Spoils Banks | highly erodible hills of rubble and mining waste; often susceptible to weathering and erosion by wind and water |
| Contour Strip Mining | type of surface mining used on hilly or moutainous terrain; series of terraces cut into side of hill |
| Highwall | wall of dirt left in front of highly erodible bank of soil and rock after contour strip mining takes place |
| Mountaintop Removal | type of surface mining where explosives, tall power shovels (20 stories high) move top of mountains off to extract coal; waste rock and dirt often dumped into streams and valleys below leading to flooding problems and toxic waste water |
| Surface Mining Control and Reclamaation Act of 1977 | requires mining companies to restore (reclaim) most surface-mined land by grading and replanting it |
| Reclamation | replacing disturbed land that has been surface-mined by grading and replanting the area |
| Subsidence | settling and sometimes collapse of land that is above an underground mine |
| Acid Mine Drainage | when rainwater seeping through min or mine wastes carries sulfuric acid (a waste product from bacteria respiring aerobically using iron sulfide minerals found in spoils) to nearby streams and groundwater |
| Ore Minerals | valuable metals part of ore that needs to be extracted from the gangue |
| Gangue | waste material found with ore that needs to be removed from the ore minerals; then usually piled off to the side in piles called tailings |
| Taillings | piles of solid waste from the gangue that was seperated from the ore mineral |
| Smelting | roasting ore to release the valuable metals |
| Cyanide Heap Extraction | spraying toxic cyanide salts on huge open-air heaps of crushed ore to chemically remove valuable ore; ex: used to remove 85% of world's gold from ore |
| Depletion Time | how long it takes to remove a certain proportion of (usually 80%) the reserves of a mineral at a given rate of use |
| Biomining | use naturally occuring or genetically modified microorgansisms (often bacteria) to extract a particular mineral / metal |
| Ecoindustrial Revolution | shift in thinking over next 50 years that will involve changing industrial processes to better mimic natural processes and ecosystems |
| Resource Exchange Webs | having industries interact with one another and be situated near each other so wastes of one manufacturer can become raw materials for another |
| Brownfields | abandoned industrial sites that can be rehabilitated and developed |
| Biomimicry | trying to get industrial processes to mimic the natural world; ex: recycling, using wastes to create new products, reusing abandoned land |
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