APES Chapter 11 and 12

• Surface mining - The removal of the top layer of the earth's surface to expose the mineral deposit
• Subsurface mining - Mining that occurs below the surface of the ground
• Examples of surface mining: strip mining, mountaintop removal, open pit mining
• Subsidence - the gradual caving in or sinking of an area of land
• acid mine drainage causes pollution
• Health hazards for miners

  • dangerous gases (methane)
  • mine could collapse on itself
• Closed mines are still dangerous too if not closed PROPERLY (will affect both humans and animals)
• Soil Horizons:

  O Horizon - leaf litter

  A Horizon - topsoil

  B Horizon - subsoil

  C Horizon - Weathered parent material
• O and A horizons: most nutrients

  B and C horizons: most inorganic materials
• Porosity: amount of spaces between sediments
• Permeability: the ability to allow liquid to pass through
• What is this?

  Soil triangle

  
• Physical Weathering: The breakdown of rocks by physical processes such as frost, water, and wind
• Chemical weathering: The breakdown of rocks by chemical reactions in the soil. (pioneer species lichen secrete acids that break down the rock)
• Biological weathering: The breakdown of rocks by living organisms. (ex: movement of plants and animals)
• weathering: the breaking down of rocks

  erosion: the movement of weathered rocks

  DO NOT CONFUSE THESE TWO !!
• Metamorphic rock - made from heat, pressure, and chemical reactions
• Igneous rock - made from magma/molten rock and cooled slowly
• Sedimentary rock - formed from the accumulation of sediments
• 4 Rs:

  1. Recycle
  2. Reduce
  3. Reuse
  4. Reclaim
• Depletion time - Time to use a certain portion (usually 80%) of reserves at a given rate of use
• Crucial Importance of Rare Earth Metals

  • 17 rare earth metals; used for several widely used technologies
• Subsidies: Government payments to further encourage the production of an item
• Rarity of rare earth metals

  Typically dispersed, meaning they are not often found in concentrated enough clusters to make them viable to mine
• Convergent boundary - Two plates moving towards each other
• Divergent boundary - two plates moving away from each other
• Transform boundary - two plates slide past each other
• Tectonic plates form: cooling of magma when it reaches the surface of the Earth; happens at divergent plate boundaries
• Tectonic plates melting - by the heat from the mantle and core
• Earthquakes

  formed by transform boundaries
• Richter scale: A scale used to measure the magnitude of an earthquake
• Magnitude: SEVERITY of the earthquake
• Amplitude: SIZE of the seismic waves (how far it can go)
• Example: magnitude of 4.0 to 6.0 increases by 100 fold

  10^4 to 10^6
• Tsunami: Extremely long wave caused by an underwater earthquake