Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CRITICAL THINKING
5.
Congratulations! You are in charge of the world. What
are the three most important features of your policy for
developing and sustaining the world's nonrenewable
mineral resources?
1.
What would probably happen if
(a)
plate tectonics
stopped and
(b)
erosion and weathering stopped? If you
could, would you eliminate either group of processes?
Explain.
2.
You are an igneous rock. Act as a microscopic reporter
and send in a written report on what you experience as
you move through the rock cycle (Figure 12-6, p. 275).
Repeat this experience, assuming you are a sedimentary
rock and then a metamorphic rock.
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3.
Use the second law of thermodynamics (p. 30) to ana-
lyze the scientific and economic feasibility of each of the
following processes:
(a)
Extracting most minerals dissolved in seawater
(b)
Mining increasingly lower-grade deposits of
minerals
(c)
Using inexhaustible solar energy to mine minerals
(d)
Continuing to mine, use, and recycle minerals at in-
creasing rates
4.
What mineral resources are extracted in your local
area? What mining methods are used, and what have
been their environmental impacts? How has mining
these resources benefited the local economy?
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