Types of Mining and Fracking
By: Alex Lee and Nick Gangadhar
Surface and Subsurface Mining
Surface Mining is a large category for mining in which soil and rock on top of the mineral deposits are removed. Ex. Coal Strip Mining, Open Pit Mining, Mountaintop Removal.
Subsurface Mining is the extraction of minerals and ores from underground. It consists of digging for ores. Ex. Slope, Drift, Shaft.
Differences:
Surface Mining
- Safer
- Damages more surface area
- Creates a mess
Subsurface Mining
- Not a lot of damage
- Very expensive and Difficult
- Dangerous working conditions
Description:
Strip Mining = Getting Ore and coal from mining.
Open Pit Mining = take rocks and minerals from beneath the earth.
Mountaintop Mining = category of mining where soil and rock on top of the minerals are removed.
Slope = Getting valuable material like coal. Also it gets resources by digging straight down into the earth.
Drift = mining of an Ore deposit using underground techniques.
Shaft = Digging vertical tunnels to find minerals.
Effects on Envornment
Strip Mining, Open Pit mining, and Mountaintop removal all effect our environment negatively because the cause lots of pollution and a great amount of mess destroying our beautiful planet. Subsurface mining dose not cause as much damage on our environment but dose cost a lot of money to make.
Fracking
A process of adding liquid at high pressure into rocks. It negatively effects the environment because it causes a lot of damage and pollution. Fracking is done by drilling and adding liquid into the ground.