Types of Mining and Fracking
Emily, Daniella and Alyssa
Surface and substance mining
surface- less expensive, safer, 90% rocks and minerals mined in us is produced by surface mining, more healthy for miners and lay on surface or close to it.
subsurface- many minerals lays underground, expensive, dangerous, deep underground, extraction is difficult, tunnels and channels must be built for miners safety, need commitments to guarantee safety and pressure and high temperature.
Types of surface mining
Open Pit: used when an ore bed covers a large area. Includes distance and depth.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/High_School_Earth_Science/Mining_and_Using_Minerals
http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2016/finalwebsite/problems/mining.html
effects on environment: Lots of land only gives a little bit of minerals so a lot has to be mined.
It exposes toxic chemical and other harmful disasters.
strip mining- When an ore bed covers a large area but is not as deep.
http://landslides.photoshelter.com/image/I0000S5EkpoiZiPM
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/coal/Mining-impacts/
effects on the environment:
Topsoil is cleared destroying the land and plants, water that goes through takes sediment with it clogging rivers and hurting water life, minerals from deep in the earth get in the water contaminating it and lots of dust is created.
Mountaintop removal mining: includes mining the top of a mountain by removing coal and land.
http://appvoices.org/end-mountaintop-removal/
http://appvoices.org/end-mountaintop-removal/ecology/
effects on the environment: Buries a lot of streams
Takes minerals out of the soil and prevents plants from growing.
Types of subsurface mining
http://www.greatmining.com/slope-mining.html
Effect on the environment: Dust pollutes the air, land is destroyed and sediment is disturbed making it easier for water to carry it away.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/mining.aspx
http://www.wvcoalmining.com/coal-news/slope-mining.html
Drift: A horizontal passage underground in a mine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drift_mining
Effects on the environment: disturbs the earth and animals living on it, rocks can fall from the disturbance of mining and noise pollution.
http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2016/finalwebsite/problems/mining.html
http://eco-friendlybgray.blogspot.com/2013/03/5-methods-of-mining.html
Shaft: when shafts are pushed from top to bottom to extract the minerals.
http://www.greatmining.com/shaft-mining.html
Effects on the environment: tunnel collapses, land subsidence and toxic chemicals becoming unearthed.
http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2016/finalwebsite/problems/mining.html
Fracking
effect on the environment: Contamination of groundwater, toxic chemicals, waste disposal, ect.
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/hydrofracking_w.html