1. Earth Resources

2. What did you have for breakfast?
Every day, you eat food and drink water because these resources are needed to live
In addition to food and water, most animals also need shelter
Think about the resources used to provide you shelter
All these materials come from Earth

3. Natural Resources Resources that Earth provides are natural resources
Include
Air, water, and land
All living things
Nutrients
Rocks
Minerals

4. Have you ever mowed a lawn or planted a garden?
Have you ever recycled?
Nonrenewable
Have you ever mowed a lawn or planted a garden?
Renewable
Both types of resources are necessary for life.

5. Renewable Resources
If we cut down a tree, we can replace that tree by planting a seedling in its place.
Trees are examples of renewable resources
Natural resources that are possible to use indefinitely without causing a reduction in the available supply
Air
Fresh surface water
Most groundwater
Living things
Elements that cycle through Earth systems (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous)

6. Renewable resources exist in an inexhaustible supply (ex. Solar energy)
Replaced through natural processes at a rate that is equal to, or greater than, the rate at which they are being used.

7. Living Things
Organisms in the biosphere are important renewable resources
Plants – crops
Animals
Forests for paper – 10 to 20 years
Trees for timber – up to 60 years
Sustainable yield – replacement of renewable resources at the same rate at which they are consumed

8. Nonrenewable resources
Why are diamonds so expensive?
Supply is limited, when all diamond mines are exhausted, no more natural diamonds will become available
Diamonds = Nonrenewable resource
A resource that exists in a fixed amount in various places in Earth’s crust and can be replaced only by geological, physical, and chemical processes that take hundreds of millions of years.

9. Resources such as:
Fossil fuels
Gemstones
Gold
Copper
Silver
Exhaustible because they are being extracted and used at a much faster rate than the rate at which they were formed.

10. Distributed Evenly? Are natural resources distributed evenly on Earth?
The availability of natural resources helps determine the wealth and the power of countries around the world.
US = many natural resources
Small countries
Surinam and Guyana – Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

11. Land Resources Land is a valuable natural resource
Provides places to live and interact
Also growth of crops, forests, grasslands, and for wilderness areas
Of all the land in the US
42% is public land
Federally administered to protect timber, grazing areas, minerals, and energy resources

12. National wildlife refuges
National Parks
Preserve scenic and unique natural landscapes
National wildlife refuges
Provide protection of habitats and breeding areas for wildlife, and some endangered species

13. Soil
It can take up to 1000 years to form just a few centimeters of topsoil, but it can be lost in a matter of minutes
Erosion by wind or water
Today topsoil is eroding faster than it forms
Why?
Plowing or leaving bare ground without plant cover

14. Each decade Earth loses 7% of its topsoil
In arid and semi-arid areas of the world, the loss of topsoil leads to desertification
Process whereby productive land becomes desert.

15. Bedrock
Underneath topsoil you have several layers of soil on top of solid rock.
Bedrock is solid rock that may consist of limestone, granite, marble, or other rocks that can be mined in quarries
Used in construction
Buildings
monuments

16. Aggregates
Mixture of gravel, sand, and crushed stone that naturally accumulates on or close to Earth’s surface.
Found on floodplains, alluvial fans
Glacial deposits
Used in construction to form concrete or mortar

17. Ores Natural resource that can be mined at a profit Hematite
Mined as long as its value on the market is greater than the cost of extraction
Hematite
Iron ore that contains 70% iron by weight
Ores are classified by the manner in which they formed

18. Chemical precipitation Placer deposits Concentration by weathering
Settling of Crystals
Hydrothermal fluids
Chemical precipitation
Placer deposits
Heavy materials settle out (gold)
Concentration by weathering

19. Other Land Resources Clay Salt Gypsum Talc Graphite
Used in bricks, china, ceramics, tiles, pottery, papermaking
Salt
Gypsum
Talc
Graphite

20. Air Resources
Life forms on Earth continue to survive as a result of a balanced gas exchange
Volcanoes release various gas particles
Photosynthetic organisms use carbon dioxide and release oxygen
Other organisms do the opposite
Human activities are disrupting these cycles

21. Sources of Air Pollution?

22. Water Resources 71% of Earth’s surface is covered by water
Oceans help regulate climate, provide habitats, dilute pollutants, shape Earth’s surface
Most animals are 50-65% water
Without water life could not exist

23. Freshwater Resources
Freshwater resources are not distributed evenly across Earth’s landmasses
US eastern states gets ample rain
Used for cooling, energy production, and manufacturing
Western states too little rain
Use majority for irrigation
Use groundwater faster than it can be recharged

24. Uses of Freshwater?

25. Desalination
Some countries have explored the possibility of converting ocean water into freshwater
Desalination occurs when salt water is distilled