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57 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Acid Mine Drainage
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Most serious environmental problem in mining today.
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Alluvial Placer
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A placer deposit that is concentrated in a streambed.
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Average Crustal Abundance
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Percentage of a particular element in the composition of the earth's crust.
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Banded Iron Formation
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Great majority of earth's iron comes from
formed long time ago when less oxygen was around. |
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Bauxite
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a rock mixture of various hydrous aluminum oxides and aluminum hydroxides.
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Black Smoker
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valuable source of copper and other metals.
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Concentration factor
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Concentrate in amounts greater than their normal abundance in the crust
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Contact-Metamorphic Deposit
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new minerals can form around an igneous intrusion due to the high temperatures
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Contour Mining
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mining of coal by cutting into and following the coal seam around the perimeter of a hill.
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Crystal Settling
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The sinking of crystals in magma
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Dredging
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excavation of earths material from the bottom of a body of water by a floating barge or raft.
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Evaporite
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nonclastic sedimentary rock composed primarily of minerals produced when a saline solution becomes concentrated by evaporation of the water.
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Flotation
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process of concentrating minerals with distinct nonwettable properties by floating them in liquids.
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Glacial Outwash
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deposits of stratified sand, gravel, and silt that have been removed from a glacier by meltwater streams.
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high-grade deposit
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a mineral deposit with a high concentrationof a desired element.
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hydrothermal deposit
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large magma body heats up water within crust and can dissolve minerals.
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lode
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a mineral deposit consisting of a zone of veins in consolidated rock.
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low-grade deposit
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a mineral deposit in which the mineral content is minimal but still exploitable at a profit.
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mineral deposit
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Where natural occurring minerals are found
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mountaintop mining
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mining of coal that underlies tops of mountains
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open-pit mining
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mining from open excavations, most commonly for low grade copper and iron deposits, and coal
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ore
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volume of rock containing useful minerals in concentrations that can be profitablymined
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ore minerals
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part of ore that is economically desirable.
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Placer Deposit
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A surficial mineral deposit formed by settling from streams of mineral particles
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precipitation
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the seperation of a solid substance from a solution by a chemical reaction.
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regional metamorphism
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a general term for metamorphism that affects an extensive area
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secondary enrichment
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process of enriching sulfuric materials already present
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Smelter
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An industrial plant that mechanically and chemically produces metals from their ores
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spoil
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refuse rock material that result from mining, excavation or dredging.
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strip mining
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mining in which resource is exposed by removing the overburden
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tailings
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worthless rock material discarded from mining operations
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vein deposits
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a thin sheetlike igneous intrusion into a crevise
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volcanogenic deposits
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of volcanic origin
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Acid Rain
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Corrosive precipitation due to the solution of atmospheric sulfuric acid in rain.
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Geothermal Energy
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Energy derived from circulating hot water and steam.
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Nonrenewable Resource
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an energy or material resource that once used is not available for reuse in human time spans.
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Reservoir Rock
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A permeable, porous geologic formation that will yield oil or natural gas.
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Source Rock
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geologic formation in which oil and/or gas originate.
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Anticline
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A generally convex-upward fold that has older rocks in its core.
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hydrocarbon
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One of the many chemical compounds solely of hydrogen and carbon atoms.
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salt dome
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a column or plug of rock salt that rises from depth
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Stratigraphic trap
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An accumulation of oil that results from a change in the character of the reservoir rock.
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caprock
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impermeable stratum that caps an oil reservoir and prevents oil and gas escaping.
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renewable resource
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energy or material resource that continually renews itself as it is being consumed.
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secondary recovery
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artificially creating oil or gas
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synthetic fuels
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fuels that are manufactured.
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Attenuation
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To dilute or spread out the waste material
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Biological Oxygen Demand
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oxygen measured to support organic pollutants
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Composting
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Bacterial recycling of organic material
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Deep-well injection
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Liquid waste disposal process that pumps liquid hundreds of feet into aquifers that cannot contaminate
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Fusion
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combination of two nuclei to form a single heavier one.
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geological respiratory
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nuclear waste
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isolation
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waste disposal
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leachate
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noxious fluids that percolate through sanitary landfills
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NWPA
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Nuclear Waste Policy Act 1982
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RCRA
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Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 1976
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Superfund
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financial accountability for polluters
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