Physical Geology

Resources of the Earth’s Crust

Fydji.Sastrohardjo@uvs.edu
Content from:
Plummer C. – Physical Geology 15th edition (2016)

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 Geologic Resources

• Reserves and Resources

• Geologic processes that lead to the formation of
coal, oil, and natural gas deposits.
• Name the important metallic and nonmetallic
resources and the geologic processes through which
they form.

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The mineral baby

https://mineralseducationcoalition.org/mining-mineral-statistics
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Increased need for Mineral Resources

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World Mineral Map

https://www.mapsofworld.com/world-mineral-map.htm
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Mineral Economics

http://css.umich.edu/factsheets/us-material-use-factsheet
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Geologic Resources and Earth’s Systems
• Geologic resources - valuable materials of geologic
origin that can be extracted from the Earth
– Many geologic resources originate in the hydrosphere
• Petroleum and coal come from organisms that lived and died in water
• Halite (salt) and other evaporite minerals come from dry lake beds
– Weathering interactions between geosphere, atmosphere and
hydrosphere produce metal oxide ores
– Humans (biosphere) interact directly with the geosphere,
hydrosphere, and atmosphere when extracting and utilizing
geologic resources
– Groundwater (hydrosphere) is a renewable geologic resource
• If it can’t be grown, it must be mined
 Types of Geologic Resources
• Geologic resources are grouped into three
major categories:
– Energy resources - petroleum (oil
and natural gas), coal, uranium,
geothermal resources
– Metals - iron, copper, aluminum, lead,
zinc, gold, silver, platinum
– Non-metallic resources - sand and
gravel, limestone, building stone,
salt, sulfur, gems, gypsum,
phosphates, groundwater, etc.
Resources may be renewable (can be continuous especially under
sustainable conditions) but most are nonrenewable.
What is the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources?
Can you think of any examples?
 Resources and Reserves
• Resources - the total amount of
a valuable geologic material in
all deposits, discovered and
undiscovered

• Reserves - discovered deposits

of geologic resources that can
be extracted economically and
legally under present conditions
– The short-term supply of geologic
materials
 Resources and Reserves

• Resource: total
amount of any given
geologic material of
potential economic
interest. A resource
can be measured

• Reserve: portion of a
resource that has been
discovered or inferred
with some degree of
certainty and can be
extracted for a profit.
The size of a reserve
can change over time
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Energy Resources - Coal
• Fossil fuels (oil, natural gas,
and coal) account for nearly
90% of U.S. energy
• Coal is a sedimentary rock that
forms from the compaction of
plant material that has not
completely decayed
– Forms from shallow burial and
compaction of peat
 Energy Resources - Coal
• Four varieties of coal
– Lignite (brown coal) is soft and crumbly
– Sub-bituminous and bituminous coal (soft coal)
• black and dusty
• burn with a smoky flame
• commonly strip-mined
– Anthracite (hard coal)
• shiny and dust-free
• burns with a smokeless flame
• low-level metamorphic rock

• Burning of high-sulfur coal can produce

acid rain; strip mines can scar landscape
• U.S. coal reserves could last for centuries
 Energy Resources - Coal
• How does coal form?
- dead plant matter settles into stagnant,
oxygen-depleted water and becomes buried
by sediment
- the inherited energy may become even
more concentrated as the molecules in the
dead plant break down into less-complex
forms. Under pressure and heat, the fossil
plant remains transform into coal.

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 Energy Resources
-Petroleum and Natural Gas
• Petroleum and natural gas,- formed
from the partially decayed remains
of organic matter
• formed in a marine environment rich in
oxygen (coastal seawater or tropical
lagoon, light-green, with suspended
microscopic life-forms including plankton,
foraminifera, diatoms and other organisms)
• Oil forms when rapid accumulation of mud
and sand bury dead organic matter and
separate it from the oxidized seawater.
• In this anoxic (oxygen-deprived)
environment, the organic remains
breakdown slowly.
 Energy Resources
-Petroleum
• Petroleum - oil and natural gas
- occurs in underground pools
• Occurrence of oil pools requires:
– A source rock (rich in organic matter)
– A reservoir rock in which it can be
stored and transmitted (e.g., sandstone)
– An oil trap (set of conditions holding
rock in reservoir rock and preventing
migration)
– Deep enough burial (and sufficient
time) to “cook” the oil and gas out of
the organic matter
 Structural Traps
for Gas and Oil

2300 m – 4600 m = Oil formation

4600+ m = Gas formation
Other Oil Traps in Geological Structures
 Petroleum Recovery
• Oil fields are regions underlain
by one or more oil pools
– Largest in U.S. are in Texas and Alaska

• Oil and natural gas are removed

through wells drilled down into an oil
trap within a reservoir rock

• Negative environmental effects

resulting from oil recovery and
transport include oil spills, brine
contamination of surface water,
and ground subsidence
 Petroleum Reserves

At current rate of use, worldwide oil reserves should last 30-40 years,
and natural gas reserves somewhat longer (estimates from USGS)
 Petroleum Reserves
• As petroleum prices rise, alternate
petroleum sources, such as heavy
crude, oil shale and oil sand, will
be increasingly exploited

– Heavy crude is dense, viscous petroleum

– Oil shale is black or brown shale with high

solid organic matter content from which oil
can be extracted by distillation

– Oil sands (or tar sands) are asphalt-cemented

sand or sandstone deposits
 Energy Resources
-Uranium
• Uranium – occurs as uraninite in
hydrothermal veins or as yellow
carnotite in sedimentary rocks
➢ Oxidized uranium is relatively
soluble and easily transported by
water. It precipitates in association
with organic matter where
bacterial activity reduced the
oxygen.
➢ provide power for electricity-
generating nuclear reactors,
➢ was also used to make tens of
thousands of nuclear warheads
during the Cold War
 Renewable Energy Sources
• Geothermal Energy – heat energy from
beneath the Earth’s surface used to
generate electricity
• Solar Energy – to produce heat or
electricity
•Passive solar heating
•Active solar heating
•Photovoltaic cells
• Wind Power – to generate electricity
• Hydroelectric Power
• Tidal Power
• Wave Power
• Biofueks –from biologic matter
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Metallic Resources

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 Metals and Ores
• Metal ores - naturally occurring
materials that can be profitably mined

• Whether or not a mineral deposit is an

ore depends on chemical composition,
the percent extractable metal, and
current market value of the metal

• Metallic ore deposits originate from

crystal settling in igneous intrusions,
hydrothermal fluids cooling in pores
and factures, chemical precipitation
in water, or sedimentation in
rivers (placers)
 Ore Formation by Igneous Processes
• Crystal Settling: early-forming minerals crystallize
and settle to the bottom of a cooling body of magma
(see Ch3)

Early-forming minerals such as chromite may settle through magma to collect in layers
near the bottom of a cooling sill
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 Ore Formation by Igneous Processes
• Hydrothermal Fluids: hot water or other fluids with residual
concentrations of elements from magma are injected into the
surrounding country rock during last stages of magma
crystallization (copper, gold). Most are metallic sulfides
mixed with quartz

Two possible origins of hydrothermal fluids. ( A ) Residually concentrated magmatic

water moves into country rock when magma is nearly all crystallized. ( B ) Groundwater
becomes heated by magma (or by a cooling solid pluton), and a convective
circulation is set up. 28
 Ore Formation by Igneous Processes
Disseminated
Contact deposits : metallic
metamorphism: sulfide ore
metamorphism minerals
due to contact distributed in very
with hot intrusion low
concentration
through large
volumes of rock,
both above and
Hydrothermal
within a pluton
veins are narrow
ore bodies
formed along
joints and faults

Hydrothermal ore deposits. ( A ) Contact metamorphism in which ore replaces limestone. ( B

) Ore emplaced in hydrothermal veins. ( C ) Disseminated ore within and above a pluton
(porphyry copper deposits, for example). ( D ) Ore precipitated around a submarine hot
spring (size of ore deposit is exaggerated). 29
 Ore Formation by Surface Processes

Chemical Precipitation in Layers

• Banded Iron Formation
(BIF) Chemical
precipitation in layers.
Alternating layers of iron
minerals and chert, formed
as sedimentary rocks in
many parts of the world
during the Precambrian,
apparently in shallow,
water-filled basins

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 Ore Formation by Surface Processes
Concentration by weathering

• Aluminum in bauxite by
weathering in tropics
• Supergene enrichment:
low-grade ores are
enriched by downward
moving groundwater
which leaches Cu and S
from ore leaving Fe
behind.

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 Mining and Metals
• Mining can be done at Earth’s surface
(strip mines, open-pit mines, and
placer mines) or underground
– Metals mined include iron, copper,
aluminum, lead, zinc, silver, gold and
many others
• With care, negative environmental
effects of mining, including unsightly
tailings piles, surface scars, land
subsidence, and acid mine drainage
can be minimized
 Non-metallic Resources
• Non-metallic resources - not mined to
extract a metal or an energy source
– construction materials
• sand, gravel, limestone, and gypsum
– Fertilizers and Evaporites (agriculture)
• phosphate, nitrate and potassium compounds)
– industrial uses
• rock salt, sulfur, asbestos)
– gemstones
• diamonds, rubies, etc.
– household and business products
• glass sand, fluorite, diatomite, graphite)
 Resources, The Environment and
Sustainability
• If it can’t be grown, it must be mined

• It is not feasible to ban all mining and drilling because we need those
materials to sustain our lifestyles.
• Nor is it acceptable to exploit with no regard for the effect on the environment
or for the needs of future generations.

Almost everyone agrees that we need to find a middle ground that includes both
mining practices that minimize environmental impact and reducing
consumption and increasing recycling to ensure a supply of resources for
future generations.
The challenge is in finding the right balance and one that all nations—developed
and developing—can agree upon.
Your understanding of geology is an important step in your being able to help
resolve moral dilemmas that we face to which there is no ideal solution.