Resources

Question 1

What are Fossil Fuels?

Answer 1

Fossil fuels refer to any organically derived sedimentary rock, or a product from an organic sedimentary rock that can be burned for fuel.

Question 2

What are the principle types of fossil fuels?

Answer 2

• petroleum
  -natural gas
  -coal
  Secondary peat, oil shales and oil sands.

Question 3

How are fossil fuels formed?

Answer 3

-organic matter that is trapped in sedimentary rocks.
- biochemical alteration near the surface
- gradual burial of the sedimentary material drives off water increasing the heat and pressure on the organic material

Question 4

What is coal?

Answer 4

A sedimentary rock occuring in beds

Question 5

How is coal formed?

Answer 5

-Plants and trees die accumulating on land or under water
- Increases in pressure, temperature, and time eventually converts plants and trees to coal

Question 6

What is Petroleum?

Answer 6

Liquid hydrocarbons found in rocks

Question 7

What is Natural Gas?

Answer 7

A simple hydrocarbon that occurs in a gaseous state at the earth’s surface. Primarily consists of methane.

Question 8

how are petroleum and natural gas formed?

Answer 8

1) a source rock that contains marine organic material,
2) formation of hydrocarbon molecules by increases in temperature and pressure associated with burial in a sedimentary basin (maturation stage)
3) migration of the hydrocarbon molecules away from the source rock, and,
4) trapping of the molecules in a suitable reservoir rock.

Question 9

What are typical sources of rocks for the formation of petroleum and natural gas

Answer 9

Sedimentary. However fine grained, low energy rocks such as marine shales and
organic sedimentary rocks such as limestones typically contain the highest amount organic
material and are the best sources of hydrocarbon molecules

Question 10

What is a sedimentary basin?

Answer 10

is a region where sediments accumulate over a long period of time resulting
in the formation of a thick sequence of sedimentary rocks

Question 11

What is Maturation?

Answer 11

As a sedimentary basin develops, trapped organic material is subjected to increasing heat and pressure.

Question 12

What is Migration?

Answer 12

As pressure increases in a sedimentary basen liquids and gases are expelled out and migrate upwards.

Question 13

What is Accumulation and Trapping?

Answer 13

Areas where migrating hydrocarbons accumulate

Question 14

What are the two general types of hydrocarbon traps:

Answer 14

stratigraphic traps and structural traps

Question 15

what are stratigraphic traps?

Answer 15

This occurs when porous and permeably rocks are sealed off by an overlying impermeable bed.

Question 16

What are structural traps?

Answer 16

this occurs where structures such as folds and faults serve to trap hydrocarbons.

Question 17

What is a mineral resource?

Answer 17

any rock or mineral that is extracted (mined) for the benefit of society

Question 18

What is a mineral deposit?

Answer 18

a naturally occurring concentration of minerals that may be extracted at a profit

Question 19

What is an ore deposit?

Answer 19

A naturally occurring concentration of minerals in amounts sufficient to permit economic and profitable recovery

Question 20

What are the primary groups of mineral deposits?

Answer 20

• Precious and Base Metal Deposits: gold, silver, platinum, copper, zinc, lead and aluminium.
• Ferrous metal deposits: iron, nickel, molybdenum, cobalt, tungsten (traditionally used to denote those metals that are used in the manufacturing of steel)
• Mineral fuels: coal, uranium, tar sands
• Industrial Minerals: a wide variety of minerals and rocks with industrial uses. It
  includes aggregates, clays, limestone, silica and building stone

Question 21

What geological processes are responsible for forming mineral deposits

Answer 21

1) Hydrothermal
2) Magmatic
3) Sedimentary

Question 22

Hydrothermal Processes

Answer 22

Hydrothermal processes involve the circulation of hot aqueous solutions through rocks of the Earth’s crust

Question 23

Magmatic Processes

Answer 23

Magmatic mineral deposits are those that form directly out of a magma due to a variety of processes that occur when a magma intrudes into the Earth’s crust and cools

Question 24

Sedimentary Processes

Answer 24

Mineral deposists formed through the process of sedimentation