Ch. 15

Question 1

Acid mine drainage

Answer 1

Rainwater seepage through a mine or mine wastes carries sulfuric acid to nearby streams and groundwater.

Question 2

Area strip mining

Answer 2

Used when terrain is flat, a big machine removed the top mineral deposit.

Question 3

Asthenosphere

Answer 3

Lower mantle of partly melted rock that flows and moves like plastic.

Question 4

Biological weathering

Answer 4

Lichens break down rock with chemicals and tree roots physically break rocks.

Question 5

Biomining

Answer 5

Using bacteria to remove a metal from ores while leaving environment undisturbed.

Question 6

Buckyballs

Answer 6

Small molecular spheres that have a variety of applications like medicine and cosmetics, part of nanotechnology revolution

Question 7

Chemical weathering

Answer 7

Rock reacts with oxygen carbon dioxide moisture and acids to break it down.

Question 8

Contour strip mining

Answer 8

Used on mountainous terrain, cuts terraces into sides of hills and is highly erodible afterwards.

Question 9

Frost wedging

Answer 9

Water collects in pores and cracks of rocks and expands, breaking it off.

Question 10

Gangue

Answer 10

Waste material left behind by ore.

Question 11

Highwall

Answer 11

Highly erodible bank of soil and rock left behind by contour strip mining.

Question 12

Igneous rock

Answer 12

Forms below or on earth’s surface when molten rock wells up from the upper mantle or deep crust, cools, and hardens. Like granite, and lava rock

Question 13

Lithosphere

Answer 13

Tectonic plates and the rigid part of the mantle.

Question 14

Manganese nodules

Answer 14

Potato sized, cover about half of Pacific ocean floor.

Question 15

Mass wasting

Answer 15

When rock and soil masses become detached and move downhill under gravity, like rockslides, but can be slower.

Question 16

Materials revolution

Answer 16

Silicon, ceramics, plastics, and others, are replacing metals.

Question 17

Metamorphic rock

Answer 17

Preexisting rock is subjected to high temperatures, high pressure, chemical fluids, or a combination of these. Like anthracite, slate, and marble.

Question 18

Mountaintop removal

Answer 18

Dragline machinery and explosives destroy mountains, leaving behind waste and toxic substances like selenium, arsenic, and mercury.

Question 19

Oceanic ridges

Answer 19

Form at divergent plate boundary and have higher peaks and deeper canyons than the tallest mountains.

Question 20

Convection cells / currents

Answer 20

Move rocks in loops in the mantle like conveyor belts.

Question 21

Convergent plate boundary

Answer 21

Continental rises over the oceanic plate, or continental plates both rise and create mountains.

Question 22

Cyanide heap extraction

Answer 22

Cyanide makes the gold leave the mountain and is harvested at the bottom, but is toxic and is often left behind.

Question 23

Depletion time

Answer 23

How long it takes to use up a certain proportion of the reserves of a mineral at a given rate of use.

Question 24

Divergent plate boundary

Answer 24

When ocean plates move away from one another.

Question 25

External changes

Answer 25

Geologic changes based on energy from the sun and on gravity. Build landforms and the environment.

Question 26

Open-pit mining

Answer 26

Machined dig holes and remove ores, sand, gravel, and stone.

Question 27

Overburden

Answer 27

Rock or soil over a mineral deposit.

Question 28

Physical / mechanical weathering

Answer 28

Physically break by frost wedging, wind, and rain.

Question 29

Resource exchange webs

Answer 29

Wastes of one manufacturer become raw materials for the other.

Question 30

Sedimentary rock

Answer 30

When rocks are eroded and the sediments are bound together by pressure and dissolved minerals. Like sandstone, shale, dolomite, limestone, lignite, and bituminous coal.

Question 31

Smelting

Answer 31

Roasts ores to release metals, releasing air pollutants that acidify soil, cause water pollution, and produce solid hazardous waste.

Question 32

Spoils

Answer 32

Overburden waste material.

Question 33

Spoil banks

Answer 33

Highly erodible hills left behind by area strip mining.

Question 34

Subduction

Answer 34

When a convergent plate boundary forces an oceanic plate to go under a continental plate.

Question 35

Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977

Answer 35

Mining companies must restore surface mined land by grading and replanting it.

Question 36

Tailings

Answer 36

Large piles of solid waste that can contaminate nearby water.

Question 37

Transform fault

Answer 37

Plates slide and grind past each other, most of which are in the ocean.

Question 38

Trench

Answer 38

Forms at converging ocean plates