Science, Earth and Space

Grade 7, Fourth Quarter

Prepared by:
Einstein Group
5
Earth's Resources
Fossil Fuel:
Includes natural gas, coal, and petroleum.
a nonrenewable resource that comes from plants and
animals that died millions years ago.
Fossil fuels are made out of hydrocarbons.
The transformation from dead organisms into fossil
fuel involves pressure, heat, and time.
The overall efficiency of extracting energy from fossil
fuels and converting it to electricity is approximately
35%.
Coal:
Forms from the remains of plant and tree.
Coal contains significant amount of sulfur, which
becomes noxious sulfur oxide gases which undergoes
chemical reaction to convert into sulfuric acid.
There are different types of coal that can be burned
for fuel.
Listed from lowest rank (least efficient) to highest
rank (most efficient): lignite, subbituminous,
bituminous, and then anthracite (which is the most
metamorphosed type of coal and burns the most
efficiently).
Most abundant and burned fossil fuel in the world is
coal.
Natural Gas:
Forms when the buried layers of plant and
animalremainsundergo intense heat and
pressure overthousandsof years.

Petroleum:
Formed from the remains
ofancientmarine organisms that were
buried under sedimentary rocks. After
undergoing intense heat and pressure for
millions of years, they were transformed
into the carbon-rich fuel.
Nuclear fuel:
comes from power plants that converts
radioactive materials into energy through
nuclear fission.
This process involves the bombardment of a
heavy nuclei, normally uranium-235, with
neutrons.
The ejected neutrons then, in turn, continue
to bombard nearby heavy uranium nuclei and
a chain reaction results.
This reaction produces heat energy.
No production of greenhouse gases but it
does produce radioactive waste.
Solar energy:
This is the direct use of sun's light rays.
This process is either passive solar collector or
active solar collector.
Passive solar collectors involves simple equipment
such as south-facing windows (sunlight comes
through window and heats room up).
Active solar collectors involve elaborate systems
of roof mounted blackened boxes that are covered
with glass. This system collects heat, which is
then circulated through pipes to where it is
needed.
Wind:
a form of solar energy.
Winds are the result of the uneven
heating of the atmosphere by the Sun as
well as the rotation of the Earth and the
irregularities of the Earth's surface.
The wind is harvested by wind turbines to
generate mechanical power or
electricity.
Biomass:
a method of burning organic matter
(firewood, charcoal, crop residues, animal
waste, ethanol, biodiesel) directly as
fuel.
Some people confuse biomass with fossil
fuel.
While both uses organic matter as fuel,
fossil fuel formed millions of years ago.
Hydro-power:
energy that comes from hydro-power is
harnessed from moving water
Recognize Earth Materials as
Resources

Earth resources are broken up into

different categories: biotic and abiotic.
Biotic resources come from the biosphere
and are living things. Resources from a
biosphere include animals such as fish or
plants such as leaves.
Abiotic are resources that are from non-
living origins. These include rocks,
minerals, water, and air.
Rocks
rocks can be used in power plants (coal),
used to make glass (limestone), used to
make bricks/cement (shale), used in
construction (conglomerate, sandstone,
quartzite), ornaments/monuments
(granite), used as an abrasion (pumice),
used as building stone (schist, gneiss), and
for architectural and ornamental purposes
(marble).
Water
Water is a renewable energy and is used in a
variety of ways to provide the resources that we
need.
used to provide energy, called hydroelectric. This
method involves falling water to drive turbines,
which then produces energy.
used for human/animal consumption, either in it's
pure liquid form or in foods and drinks. Farms
require large amounts of water to grow food.
Many industries require water such as power plants
(used for cooling), oil refineries, and
manufacturing plants.
 Dams can be used to collect surface runoff.
Fresh water is a limited, renewable energy
resource.
Approximately 3% of water on our Earth is fresh.
And of this very small percentage, 2/3 of it is
frozen in the form of glaciers or polar ice caps.
Fresh water is used toirrigatingcrops
(approximately 40%), drink, bathing, etc. It comes
from rivers, lakes, rain, snowmelt, or undergrown
aquifers.
Minerals
Minerals are extracted from earth crust and are used
for building roads, abrasives, ceramics, and
fertilizers. These are called industrial rocks
andminerals. Minerals extracted from ores are
minded at a profit. List of the most abundant
elements in the Earth's crust:
Oxygen at 47%
Silicon at 28%
Aluminium at 8%
Iron at 5%
Calcium at 3.5%
Sodium at 3%
Potassium at 2.5%
Magnesium at 2%
All other elements is at 1%
Renewable vs.
Nonrenewable Resources
Non-renewable resources:
formed in Earth, but the process that is used to
create them are so slow that can take millions of
years to produce significant quantities.
They cannot be replaced as fast as humans use them
up.
fuels such as petroleum,
natural gas, and
coal;
metals, such as iron, gold, copper.
Some of these resources can be recycled such as
aluminum.
Renewable resources:
resources that can be replenished over a relatively
short time span.
energy derived from water (hydropower),
solar power,
geothermal,
wind energy, and
ocean thermal;
animals;
and plants.