1. Earth, Moon and Mars: How They Work Professor Michael Wysession Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Washington University, St. Louis, MO Lecture 6: Earth’s Resources

2. Every year > 25,000 pounds (11.3 metric tons) of new non-fuel minerals must be provided for you, and each person in the US, to make the items that each of us use every day.

4. Human History: Stone age, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. 7 metals of antiquity: Gold (8000 yra); copper (6200 yra); silver (6000 yra); lead (5500 yra); tin (3750 yra); iron (3500 yra); mercury (2750 yra)

5. Copper – humans use 15.7 million metric tons each year!! 3 billion tons geologically available < 200 years left ?? Ex/ Bingham copper mine in Utah

6. Indium (liquid crystal displays in cell phones). * Now $685/kg

7. Europium – used for red phospor in color TVs and LCD screens. * No substitute, though prices > $2000/kg

8. Platinum – diesel catalytic converters. No good substitute. Rhodium – removing NOx emissions. No good substitute.

9. Rare Earth elements like neodymium, samarium, gadolinium, dysprosium, and praseodymium * Used for high-performance permanent magnets in electronics, video games, military devices, disk drives, DVDs. No good substitutes. We import 100% of these! (75% from China)

10. U.S. Imports of Minerals

11. Estimated Lifetime of some Selected Minerals Assuming 2009 Rates of Consumption (in thousands of metric tons) (http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/) MineralAnnual ReservesEstimated Resources Est. Lifetime ProductionLifetime (yrs) (yrs) Arsenic 53.5 1,070 20 11,000 210 Bauxite 201,000 27,000,000130 75,000,000370 Cadmium 18.8 590 31 NA Chromium 23,000 350,000 15 12,000,000520 Cobalt 62 6,600110 15,000 240 Copper 15,800 540,000 34 3,000,000190 Gold 2.35 47 20 NA Carbon (graphite) 1,130 71,000 63 800,000700 Indium 0.6 6 10 NA Iron Ore2,300,000 160,000,000 70800,000,000350 Lead 3,900 79,000 20 15,000,000 3800 Lithium 18 9,900550 25,500 1400 Mercury 1.28 67 52 600470 Nickel 1,430 71,000 50 130,000 91 Platinum Group 0.4 71180 100250 Rare Earths 124 99,000800 NA Silver 21.4 400 19 NA Titanium 5,720 730,000130 2,000,000350 Tungsten 58 2,800 48 NA Zinc 11,100 200,000 18 1,900,000170

12. Gold: Peak or Plateau?

13. Minerals need to be naturally concentrated by geologic processes to be economically mined. (Of course, this depends on the $$) Ex/ gold = 3 parts per billion (0.0000003%) of Earth’s crust 1 wedding band = 3000 TONS of crust!

14. Why is all the copper along the western coast? Why is there gold in California and Alaska, but not in Florida?

15. Mid-Ocean Ridge Thermal Vents

16. Hydrothermal circulation concentrates certain minerals and ores.

19. Important Resource: Water

20. Per capita per day water use, USA –100 gallons personal (2 bathtubs) – (1000 gallons total) Food production –Pound of rice 250-600 gallons –¼ pound hamburger meat 3000 gallons –1 liter of water 27 liters (1 + 26 for production of bottle!) And 1 liter of gasoline And 0.5 kg CO 2

21. 1/6 – 1/3 world’s population –Limited clean drinking water –3.3 million deaths/yr Major rivers don’t make it to ocean –Colorado, Rio Grande UN: In 2050, 2 - 7 billion human beings may experience chronic water shortages “If the wars of this (20 th ) century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water” (Ismail Seregeddin, vice president, World Bank; 1995)

22. More than doubled during my lifetime. 7% of all humans that have lived are alive today…. Sustainable level? World Population: 7,000,131,319 (US Census- Yesterday) Human Impacts: Population Growth

23. Future Growth: In Already Stressed “Hot” Regions

24. US paved land is now the size of state of Georgia. US developed land is now the size of the state of California. 35% of Exposed Land used to grow/raise food for humans. Humans - now the single largest geologic force.

25. Transitioning from Fossil sources to Renewable sources. * May need ALL sources in the short term How quickly? How smoothly? How much intervention? ENERGY RESOURCES

26. Energy Sources >85 % of energy sources are Fossil Fuels >90 % of energy sources are Non- Renewable

27. OIL & NATURAL GAS

28. Petroleum burial and recovery.

29. Proven World Reserves of Oil (CIA, World Factbook, 2008) Total = 1.3+ Trillion Barrels Oil Industry Resources Estimate: 5 Trillion Barrels

30. U.S. uses 20 million barrels/day (25% of World) (7.3 billion/year) The World uses 84 million barrels/day (31 billion/year) World reserves = ~1400 billion barrels (45 years) U.S. reserves = 19 billion barrels (2.6 years) TOTAL U.S. possible reserves and resources (high-end guess by DOI MMS)? 96 billion barrels (13 years)

32. Natural Gas Reserves World Reserves = 6.3 quadrillion cubic feet World Consumption = 105 trillion cubic feet/year (60 years)

33. World reserves of coal = ~1 trillion metric tons World use of coal = ~7 billion metric tons/year COAL

34. World Coal Reserves ~ 1 trillion metric tons

35. World Coal Production = 7.3 billion metric tons/yr

36. METHANE GAS HYDRATES

37. Methane ICE

39. Methane Gas Hydrates:

40. Methane gas hydrate forming below a rock overhang at the sea floor on the Blake Ridge diapir. This image, taken from the DSV Alvin during the NOAA- sponsored Deep East cruise in 2001, marked the first discovery of gas hydrate at the sea floor on the Blake Ridge. Methane bubbling out of the sea floor below this overhang quickly “freezes,” forming this downward hanging hydrate deposit, dubbed the "inverted snowcone."

41. Methane Gas Hydrates:

42. NUCLEAR FISSION

43. Typical reaction process: bombard 235U with neutrons (or by bombarding the more-abundant 238U with neutrons to produce 239Pu in a “breeder reactor”)

44. Uranium Reserves: World Reserves = 3.5 million tons of uranium oxide World Resources = 10 million tons World Use = 60 thousand tons/yr Outlook = 150-200 years BUT….more from seawater extraction? Much greater lifetime with switch to Th232 (breeds to U233)

45. Total Rate of World Energy Use = 18 Terawatts  85% is from Fossil Fuels Total Power from the Sun at Earth’s Surface = 125,000 Terawatts!!  ~7000x Total Human Energy Use  1 Hour of Sunlight = 1 Year of Human Energy Use

46. SOLAR POWER Commercial Panels: 12% Efficiency Experimental Panels: 22% Efficiency Nanotech Cells: >40% Efficiency Direct electric conversion with several materials Inexpensive organic materials now exceed 6% efficiency

47. For Large-Scale Production, Mirrors Easier/Cheaper Than Panels Example: Kramer Junction solar power plants, Mojave Desert, CA * 150 MW

48. (Altamont Pass, California) WIND POWER

49. Efficiency increases exponentially with wind speed Ex/

51. HYDROELECTRIC POWER Supplies 20% of the World’s Electricity Some countries (Canada, Norway, Austria, etc.) get most of their electricity from hydro power

52. Grand Coulee Dam: Columbia River, Washington; Generates 6.8 GW (largest in U.S.)

53. Three Gorges Dam: World’s Largest Hydro Power Plant: 22.5 Gwatts But issues with regional impacts of dams

54. Wave Energy : Ex/ Pelamis Machine

55. Tidal Energy The 240 MW tidal barrage installed at the Rance Estuary in France

56. Geothermal US: 2 GW Global potential: 100 GW Great potential as single- family winter/summer house heat pump

57. HYDROGEN Not a Source, but a means of Distribution -- Will be in competition with new battery technology (Electric Cars)

58. Tesla Roadster Percentage Increase

59. Chevy Volt * First 40 miles run off batteries. * Small gas generator extends distance if needed, at >100 mpg * Plugs into any 120-240VAC outlet * Uses a 435-lb lithium-ion battery pack (estimated to degrade by 10-30% after 8-10 years)

60. HIGH-ALTITUDE WIND POWER Future solutions?

61. SPACE-BASED SOLAR POWER

62. NUCLEAR FUSION Helium-3 from Lunar Regolith? (0.01 ppm)

63. DYSON SPHERE?