Geology: Ch.23 (Energy and Mineral Resources)

By the year 2015, the world's population will probably have just reached or slightly surpassed ________ people.

7 billion

________ supplies the largest percentage of energy consumed annually in the United States.

Petroleum

Comparatively speaking, the United States uses energy fuels and minerals ________.

less efficiently than other technologically advanced countries

________ is an essential component of plasters and plasterboard.

gypsum

Sandstone is a much more common reservoir rock for petroleum than shale because ________.

sandstones are more permeable than shales so subsurface flows of fluids tend to be directed through sandstone strata rather than through shales

________ is used in pencils and as a solid lubricant.

Graphite

The world's largest, commercially developed tar sand deposit is ________.

near Lake Athabasca in central Canada

The world's largest plant for generating electricity from tides is ________.

in the Rance River estuary, Brittany, along the Atlantic coast of France

Cap rock and reservoir strata refer to accumulations of ________.

petroleum

Of the following fossil fuels, ________ is most likely to have the lowest sulfur content and smallest volume of solid ash residue.

natural gas

________ is the main fuel used in nuclear fission reactors to produce electricity.

Uranium-235

Coal and petroleum are considered to be fossil fuels because ________.

their energy content was derived from ancient sunlight

________ has the largest, current production and reserves of crude oil.

Central and eastern Saudi Arabia

________ is a nonrenewable resource.

petroleum

Graphite deposits typically form geologically ________.

by regional metamorphism of organic-rich, black shales

Bauxite is an ore of ________.

aluminum

Chemical decomposition of ________ produces acidic soil waters that can cause secondary enrichment in copper and in other ore deposits.

pyrite

________ accounts for the majority of the coal burned annually in the United States.

Generation of electricity

The first, large-scale, commercial, geothermal, electrical power-generation facility in the United States was brought into production at ________.

The Geysers, northern California in 1960

The United States, with about 6 % of the world's population, uses about ________ of the world's total, annual, energy production.

30%