Mining and fracking
their effects on the enviorment by Dalia and Amy
Surface mining
When surface vegetation, dirt, and if needed layer of bedrock are being removed to reach buried ore deposits
examples:
open pit mining
strip mining
mountain top removal
Open pit mining
a surface mining technique of extracting rock and minerals from the earth by their removal from a open pit or borrow
Effect: when the rocks are separated it can produce toxic and radioactive substance. these elements can leak into bedrock if not properly contained.
Strip mining
The practice of mining a seam of mineral, by first removing a long strip of overlaying soil and rock.
Effect: Strip mining destroys landscapes, forests and wildlife habitats at the site of the mine when trees, plants, and topsoil are cleared from the mining area. This in turn leads to soil erosion and destruction of agricultural land.
Mountain top mining
a way using explosives to remove the top of the mountain
Effect:The exposed rock leaches heavy metals and other toxics that pose enormous health threats to the region’s plants and animals and people.
Underground mining
the digging of tunnels or shafts into the earth to reach buried ore deposits.
Examples Slope, Shaft and Drift mining
Slope mining
an vertical or horizontal tunnel to find ore or coal.
Effect: Deforestation, erosion, Entrapment.
shaft mining
excavating a vertical or near-vertical tunnel from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom.
Effect: Disruption of rock structure and underground water flow
Draft mining
the mining of an ore deposit by underground methods or the working of coal seams and accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed.
Effect: damage to water and soil.
Fracking
the process of drilling into the earth before a high pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside.
Effect: it can cause toxic waste water