A Deeper Look at the Athabasca Tar Sands Lesson 5

Pencil / Pen Pencil crayons You Will Need:

Non-Sustainable Practices and Sustainable Practices What are they? Remember the definitions from last class.

Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta Have you heard of this?

What are the Athabasca Tar Sands? Buried under Canada’s boreal forest is one of the world’s largest reserves of oil. Bitumen—a very thick and heavy form of oil (also called asphalt)—coats grains of sand and other minerals in a deposit that covers about 142,200 square kilometers (54,900 square miles) of northwest Alberta.  Only 20 percent of the oil sands lie near the surface where they can easily be mined, and these deposits flank the Athabasca River. The rest of the oil sands are buried more than 75 meters below ground and are extracted by injecting hot water into a well that liquefies the oil for pumping. What are the Athabasca Tar Sands? http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/athabasca.php

Oil sand mining has a large impact on the environment Oil sand mining has a large impact on the environment. Forests must be cleared for mining. This series of images from the Landsat satellite shows the growth of surface mines over the Athabasca oil sands between 1984 and 2011. The Athabasca River runs through the center of the scene, separating two major operations. To extract the oil at these locations, oil producers remove the sand in big, open-pit mines, which are tan and irregularly shaped. The sand is rinsed with hot water to separate the oil, and then the sand and wastewater are stored in “tailings ponds,” which have smooth tan or green surfaces in satellite images. Before we take a look… http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/athabasca.php

How is the extraction of resources affecting the environment? http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/athabasca.php

What do you think the Athabasca Tar Sands could do to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly? Brainstorm!

Let’s Take a Look… http://www. atha

Reclaiming What do you think this means? http://oilsands.alberta.c a/reclamation.html Reclaiming

Activity On Your Worksheet Get some pencil crayons. In the top box draw what you think the Athabasca Tar Sands used to look like before humans started extracting the oil there. In the bottom box draw what you think the Athabasca Tar Sands look like now that humans are extracting the oil there. When you are done put your worksheets in the bin at the front. Activity