CORNELL NOTES: FOSSIL FUELS

What are Fossil fuels are Non-renewable energy resources, which means they come
Fossil from resources that can’t be replenished or replaced.
Fuels?

Where are Fossil fuels are produced from decomposing plants and animals that are
Fossil processed over a long period of time. It can be found in the Earth’s crust and
Fuels contain carbon and hydrogen, which are burned and turned into energy.
produced?
Fossil Fuels are made of hydrocarbons (hydrogen and carbon)

Examples Coal, Oil (or petroleum), Natural gas, Other nontraditional fossil fuels
of Fossil (oil shale, oil sands and tar sands, shale gas, methane hydrate)
Fuels

Example Biomass (burning of wood, biofuels such as ethanol & biodiesel, or

of waste), Hydroelectric power (using flowing water to produce energy),
Renewable Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Tidal and Wave Energy, Geothermal
Energy Energy.
Sources

The The carbon cycle is

Carbon nature's method of
Cycle reusing carbon
atoms, which travel
from the atmosphere
into organisms on
Earth and then back
into the atmosphere.
The majority of
carbon is stored in
rocks and sediments,
with the remainder in
the ocean,
atmosphere, and
living organisms.
How are Deposition
rock - The
layers DROPPING of
formed? sediments in a
NEW or
different place.

Examples:
- Formation of
an island
- Island
- Sand dunes
Layers of sediment slowly build up. The sediment
is buried with even more sediment. Over time, the
sediment turns into sedimentary rock. The remains
of the plant or animal also turns to rock

Our crust is full of layers which are exposed in canyons and mountains.

What The heat and pressure from being buried in sediment can sometimes
happens cause the tissues of organisms — including plant leaves and the soft
when body parts of fish, reptiles and marine invertebrates — to release
organism hydrogen and oxygen, leaving behind a residue of carbon and results to
get
FOSSIL FUEL.
trapped in
the
layers?

Fossil These are Organic sedimentary rocks that are formed from the remains
Fuel: Coal of plants in swamps and marshes

The burning of coal is one of the largest sources of CO2

- Combustion

The main use of coal is generating electric energy.

Organic materials + Pressure + Heat + Time = COAL

• Dead plants get buried and compacted to create peat.

• Plant material breaks down releasing natural gas.
• Peat is further compacted to create lignite (brown coal)
• Lignite is compacted to create bituminous coal (soft coal)
• Finally, bituminous coal is compacted to create anthracite (hard
coal)
Fossil Fuel Oil us a liquid fossil fuel which is thick and it is formed from the
Formation: remains of small animals, algae and protists.
PETROLEUM
(OIL) It was formed when large numbers if microscopic aquatic organism
died and settled in the sediments.
Fossil Fuel It is a mixture of highly flammable gasses, like methane, which is made
Formation: from plants or animals.
NATURAL
GAS The formation of this is same as the oil’s formation: where in Marine
life or Aquatic organisms gets buried deeper the sediments then
pressures build up and creates heat.

If heat is greater than 300°𝐶 then the oil is further broken down to form
natural gas.

REMINDER: Pressure, heat, and time are needed to create these resources
Coal
Formation

Types of Peat: The sediments that forms coal

Coal or its - It is Brown, partially decayed plants fragments.
Ranks - Its vegetation accumulates in wetlands like swamps. Marshes,
Coal

peat bogs or lakes.

Low Rank - Stagnant water (little or no oxygen) slows decomposition rate.
to
High Rank
Lignite
Increasing - It is Soft, dark brown, gray or black, crumbly, sooty coal.
pressure, - There may be visible parts that have plants
temperature - It’s formed from compaction of peat under low burial pressure
and depth and temperature.
of burial - LOW RANK COAL
- Carbon content 46-60% (dry basis)

Sub-bituminous coal
- Intermediate between lignite and bituminous coal.
- Carbon content 46-60% (dry basis)
 Bituminous Coal
- It is hard but slightly sooty
- Dull to shiny luster
- it’s deeper burial, longer burial, and higher temperature than
lower coal ranks.
- It is the most abundant coal rank in the United States.
- Carbon content 46-86% (dry basis)

Anthracite
- It is hard and shiny coal with a slivery luster.
- This is a metamorphic rock that is formed from bituminous coal
at higher temperatures and pressures.
- Carbon content 86-98% (dry basis)
COALIFICA-
TION
COAL

- The water is expelled as peat is compacted.

- The plant material breaks down releasing natural gas and it is
mostly methane.
- A bed of peat is about 10 feet thick and produces a layer of coal
about 1 foot thick.
Carbon, - Different types of coal that contains different amounts of carbon.
Heating - The highest percentage of carbon is found in the highest rank
Value and coal.
Carbon - High-rank coal has a higher heat content or heating value
Dioxide
- When coal is burned, carbon dioxide is emitted and it is a
greenhouse gas that is related to global warming.
 What is Oil - It is a liquid-hydrocarbons that are present in certain layers of
or sedimentary rocks (the geosphere)
petroleum? - Petroleum can be extracted from the rock and refined to
produce fuels and chemical.

Petroleum
products
OIL or Petroleum

Major - Methane (CH4)

component
Natural Gas

Other gases - Ethane (C2H6)

that may be - Propane (C3H8)
present - Butane (C4H10)
include:

Petroleum
and Natural
Gas
Formation
 What are - Tar sands forms when oil is moving upward within sa reservoir of porous,
Tar sands? permeable sand is not stopped by an impermeable sedimentary layer.
Tae sands

- Oil begins to escape from the sand at the surface, and is biodegraded by
“oil-eating bacteria”, causing the oil to become highly viscous asphalt or tar
called bitumen.
- Tar sands can be mined and processed with hot water to separate the
bitumen from the sand.

What is Oil - Oil shale is sedimentary rock containing kerogen that has not been heated
Oil Shale

Shale? enough within Earth to change the kerogen into hydrocarbons.

- Oil shale can be mined, but it must be subjected to a high temperature
before petroleum-like liquids can be separated from the rock.

What is - Shale gas forms in organic-rich black shales where extremely deep burial and
Shale Gas

Shale Gas? extremely high temperatures have broken petroleum down into natural gas
(methane).

What is fracking? - Shales have low permeability, so to extract the oil or methane gas, it is
necessary to create artificial fractures.
- Wells are drilled to thousands of feet deep, and then drilled horizontally along
the shale bed.
- High-pressure fluids and sand are injected to hydraulically fracture the shale,
releasing the trapped oil or methane gas (fracking).

What are - Ice saturated with natural gas (methane) on the seafloor, and in arctic
methane permafrost regions. And Methane in the cryosphere.
hydrates?

SUMMARY:

Fossil Fuels are produced from decomposing plants and animals that are processed over a long time. it
contains carbon and hydrogen (hydrocarbons). Fossil Fuels are also Non-renewable energy which means
they can't be replaced. Rock layers are formed in a way of deposition and these layers, the decomposing
plants, and animals are buried. Examples of Fossil Fuels are Coal, Petroleum oil, Natural Gas, and other
nontraditional fossil fuels. there are also ranks of Coal. lastly remember that Pressure, heat, and time are
needed to create these resources.
 CORNELL NOTES: FOSSIL NOTES
Fossils - Fossils are preserved remains or traces of living things.
- It is forms in sedimentary rocks.
- The hard parts are only the parts of an organism that leaves a fossil.
Example: Bones, shells, teeth, seeds, and woody stems.

Five types of - Molds

Fossils - Casts
Found in - Petrified Fossils
Rock - Carbon Films
- Trace Fossils

Environments - May be found in Tar, amber, or Ice.

for Fossil - Large beds of sedimentary rocks indicate a former marine or
Formation aquatic/semi-aquatic environment
- Sedimentary rocks form when sediments (sand, silt, mud) are
hardened into stone as the environment changed in response to
changes in climate or geography.
- The presence of fossils in sedimentary rocks indicate that the past
environment supported life.

Common - Ammonite fossil from the British Coastline. Ammonites were the
Marine Fossil dominant life form on Earth at one time and resembled the modern-
day squid.

How Fossil - To be preserved, an organism must be kept in an environment free of

Form oxidation and bacterial decay.
- The organism must be quickly buried by sediment and protected from
oxygen.
- Water-covered environments, such as swamps, deep lakes, tar pits,
and oceans, are more likely to preserve organisms.

How a Fossil - When an organism dies, its soft tissues frequently decay or are
Form consumed by animals. Because of this, only hard parts leave fossils.
For example, bones, shells, seeds, and stems. The organism is still
covered in sediments.

Fossils - The sediment hardens into rock, preserving remnants of the

Formation organism.
- Minerals fill any holes left by the skeleton as it dissolves as the
sediment hardens.
- Weathering and erosion eventually expose the fossil at the surface
as a mineralized copy of the original organism.
 Molds
- A mold is a hollow area in sediment shaped like an organism
- Mold forms when the organism's hard part is buried in sediment.
- The mold is formed when water enters and dissolves the organism,
leaving a hollow area in the shape of the original organism.

Casts
- Water containing dissolved minerals and sediments may permeate
the mold.
- This sediment may harden and take the shape of the mold, resulting
in a fossil replica.
- A cast is a solid replica of a fossil or organism's shape.
- A cast is the polar opposite of a mold.
- The mold and casts both preserve structural details of the organism.

Petrified Fossils
Types of - Petrified fossils are fossils formed when minerals replace all or a
Fossils portion of an organism.
- Water containing dissolved minerals seeps into the organism's
spaces.
- The minerals come out of the solution and harden over time, filling in
all the gaps. This preserves the organism.

Carbon Films
- Carbon films are a very thin layer of carbon on rock.
- When sediment buries an organism, some of its materials evaporate
or become gases.
- These gases escape from the sediment, leaving behind carbon.
- Eventually, only a thin layer of carbon remains. This aids in the
preservation of the organism.

Trace Fossils
- Trace fossils provide evidence of ancient organisms' activities.
- A trace fossil is a fossilized footprint. Scientists can learn about a
prehistoric organism's size, diet, environment, and behavior from
trace fossils.

Preserved - Some processes preserve organism remains with little or no change.

Remains - Tar, Amber, and Ice are examples of processes that preserve the
remains of organisms with little or no change.

Using the - A paleontologist is a scientist who specializes in the study of fossils.

Fossil Record - The fossil record refers to all of the information that paleontologists
have gathered about past life.
- The fossil record reveals information about the evolution of life and
past environments on Earth.
- It also demonstrates how various groups of organisms have evolved
over time.
Fossil Record - The presence of coal in Antarctica indicates that the climate was
once warmer there.
- The fossil record is used by scientists to support theories about how
living things have changed over time.
- A rock's relative age is its age in comparison to other rocks.
- The absolute age of a rock is the number of years since its formation.
- An index fossil is a fossil that is widely distributed and represents a
type of organism that existed only briefly.
- They're useful because they can be used to determine the age of
rocks.

Summary:

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of living organism that is formed mostly in
sedimentary rocks. There are Five types of Fossil Formation and this Molds, Casts, Petrified
Fossils, Carbon Films, and Trace Fossils. A paleontologist is a scientist who studies fossils to
know how organisms evolved and these fossils are a such great way to know what happened
in the past.
 SUMMARY: WATER RESOURCES

Water resources

Water resources are water sources that are useful

or have the potential to be useful to humans.
Water can be used for agricultural, industrial,
household, recreational, and environmental uses
by humans. Almost all of these applications
require the use of fresh water. However, 97.5% of
the water on Earth is salt water, with only 2.5%
being fresh water. More than two-thirds of this
fresh water is trapped in glaciers and polar ice
caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is mostly
found as groundwater, with only a small
percentage found above ground or in the
atmosphere. Although fresh water is a renewable
resource, the world's supply of clean, fresh water
is steadily diminishing.