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Geology Test 3
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What issues may prevent the development of nuclear and hydroelectricity resources as viable alternatives to coal and hydrocarbons? | Nuclear and hydroelectric power plants are expensive to build. Nuclear has safety risks and disposal problems. There are environmental concerns and cost concerns with hydroelectricity. |
| How has climate changed in the Arctic? Why might continuing warming in the Arctic contribute to sea level rise in the future? | Temperature has warmed faster than anywhere else. Ice melt from the Greenland Ice Sheet contributes to sea level rise. |
| How is geothermal energy used for heating and cooling buildings? | Buildings have heat exchanger and a set of coiled pipes that are in the ground. Liquid flows through the pipes to reach an equilibrium with the ground temp. Heating, liquid expands and releases hot air into building. Cooling liquid releases into ground |
| What is needed to develop renewable energy resources to the same volume as conventional energy resources? | An expansion from 10% of electricity production to 100%, plus an increase in the amount of electricity being produced. |
| What are solar concentrating systems? How do they generate electricity? | They are a set of reflective surfaces that concentrate radiation onto a pipe or other material filled with hot air fluid or gas. The heat is ultimately used to produce steam that rotates a turbine to produce electricty. |
| What are photovoltaic cells? How do they react with solar radiation to generate electricity? | Materials designed to produce electricity from incoming solar radiation. They are arranged into solar panels. Photons, the energy carrying particles of solar radiation, react with materials in the cell to free electrons and produce an electrical current. |
| Which states produce the most wind power? | Midwestern states and California |
| How is mechanical energy converted to electrical energy by wind turbines? | The rotating blades on a wind turbine are connected by gears to a turbine in a generator. This produces electricity rate of about 80%. |
| What can be done to stabilize CO2 emissions during the upcoming decades? | Shifting electricity production away from coal and natural gas to renewables and shifting the transportation and industrial sectors to electricity or renewable fuels. |
| How is geothermal heat used for electrical power production? | Geothermal heat that produces hot water and steam in the subsurface can be tapped for electrical power production if the hot water and steam can be extracted. Pumping hot water or steam to the surface can rotate a turbine in a generator |
| What is nuclear energy? How does it produce heat sufficient for electrical power generation? | Nuclear energy is produced by radioactive decay and nuclear fission in manufactured material. The decay produces heat that boils water to produce steam, the steam rotates a turbine to produce electricty. |
| What are the environmental impacts of dams and reservoirs used for hydroelectric power production? | Dams and reservoirs flood large areas of the Earth surface upstream of the dam and fragment river habitats into upstream and downstream locations. |
| What approximate percentage of electricity used in North Dakota comes from coal? | 71% |
| What are the advantages and disadvantages of hydraulic fracturing? What are the potential environmental impacts? | It is advantageous for recovering oil and gas from source rocks. This can’t be done any other way. Disadvantages are the amount of energy and water to fracture rocks and can cause earthquakes. Gas can leak into shallow ground water aquifers. |
| What is hydraulic fracturing? Why is it required to extract natural gas from source rocks? | Hydraulic fracturing is the use of pressurized liquid to fracture rocks in the ground to cause oil and gas to flow from them. Source rocks are not permeable enough to release oil and gas unless they are fractured. |
| What are the primary an enhance oil recovery methods? | Primary- pumping oil form a well. Enhanced involve injecting fluid into reservoir rocks that help to displace oil towards a pumping well |
| What is the difference between reservoir rocks and source rocks? | Reservoir rocks have lots of void space and are permeable enough to allow oil and gas to flow through them. Source rocks are the porous but are not permeable. They are where oil and gas originate and then slowly drift into reservoir rocks. |
| What are hydrocarbons? How do they form? | Hydrocarbons are organic compounds rich in hydrogen and carbon that form in hot Earth. They originate from buried organic matter in the deep ocean. Burial causes the matter to transform into compounds that can be used as fuel. |
| What is required for carbon capture and sequestration? What types of rocks can be used to sequester carbon? | Carbon dioxide emissions have to be captured onsite, stored, and converted to liquid to minimize its volume. The carbon dioxide must be injected into the subsurface to be stored in rocks that have space for it. Reservoir rocks, with lots of void space. |
| What is the cap and trade system? How has it been applied to emissions from coal? | Market-based solution to emissions. To reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. A cap on emissions over time. If a plant can be below the cap. They can sell their allowance. This incentivizes plants to be below cap |
| What emissions products come form coal? What has been or could be done to minimize emissions from coal? | Emissions are carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide and soot. Sulfur dioxide is removed in the flue by scrubbers. Soot and other impurities are removed by washing crushed coal before its combusted. |
| What are three ways by which coal is extracted from the substance? What are the environmental impacts extraction methods? | Surface mining, underground mining, and mountain-top removal. Tailings can contaminate nearby water resources in surface mining and underground mining. Mountain-top impacts terrain and water drainage permanently |
| What are the differences between grades of coal? What types of coal emits the most carbon when combusted? | Lowest-highest- anthracite, bituminous, sub-bituminous, and lignite. Anthracite emits the most carbon per unit mass, most of it has already been mined |
| What are the coal producing regions of the United States? What grades of coal are produced in these regions? | The eastern U.S., the Midwest, and the West. Bituminous and sub-bituminous coal are produced in large amounts in the east and interior, whereas sub-bituminous and lignite are produced in the west. |
| Why doe as coal form in delta environments? | Coal forms where terrestrial organic matter Is buried quickly in large amounts. Deltas are places where streams provide large amounts of sediment that can bury organic matter before it decomposes |
| Why was coal, for many decades, the primary source of electrical power generation in the United States? What is the primary source today? | Coal is abundant in the United States and has been easily mined. The primary source today is natural gas, which is also inexpensive and has fewer hazards with its extraction. It is also cleaner. |
| Describe the potential hazards of climate change in terms of risk management. | The probability of future warming is great and the hazards associated with it are great. The product of these two things is risk. A hazard with a high probability is the highest possible risk. |
| What is polar amplification of climate change? | This is the observed faster rate of warming at the poles that results from albedo changes. Snow and ice are replaced with vegetated land or ocean water, which absorbs much more incoming solar radiation. |
| Why is atmospheric CO2 considered a significant forcing of the observed warming of the 20th and 21st centuries? | It has the second-greatest concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and as opposed to water vapor, has a long residence time in the atmosphere. The concentration has risen steadily because it is a common emissions product of fossil fuel burning |
| How have natural forcings of climate change affected the observed warming of the 20th and 21st centuries? | Natural forcings have affected variability of climate change, but have not been the driver of warming since the early part of the 20th century. Greenhouse gases have been the driver of warming. |
Created by:
pmitchell44