ESCI 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Geosphere
17 Feb 2020
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Document Summary
Ages of man: we are still in the age of where we define our wealth by exploiting our mineral use. Information/technology age: even modern society, even our high tech age is driven by our relationship with non-renewable sources. Mineral resources: obtained from geosphere by, extracting, crushing, purifying, using, the cost of mining resources is immense. What is a mineral: they have to be naturally occurring; we can make minerals but they are not real. Ice is a mineral but liquid water is not. Naturally occurring: we take minerals and modify them. Principle elements there are lots of minerals that we rely on. Rock cycle: rocks that are formed in the crust are reactive; release elements in the environment (either sufficient or dangerous, mining; taking rocks and sticking them in the environment (creates toxins) Sole source of many raw materials: mineral resource economics similar to energy; what"s economic today is not economic tomorrow.
