Types of Mining and Fracking
Robin Batsuli, Elizabeth Durkee, Heli Kavi
Effects: For strip mining, scraping away layers of the Earth destroys landscapes and leads to soil erosion. This destroys agricultural land. For all types of mining, chemical contamination from the extraction can also destroy the land. The dust and noise pollution from heavy machinery is problematic as well.
Mining by removing strips of the surface at a time.
Taking out minerals and rocks from an open crater in the Earth's surface.
Mining down from the summit of the mountain.
Effects: Underground mining can cause waste to be brought up to the surface. The mine could collapse and cause serious damages to the surroundings. Coal mining also creates greenhouse gases.
A method of getting resources by digging a downward tunnel (hence the name slope) towards the material.
A mine where the entry is above water level. It is a horizontal passageway to a mine.
Extracting valuable minerals by digging tunnels or shafts underground to reach the material.
Fracking causes controversy because as we find this new resource, we also waste water and release carcinogenic chemicals. 1-8 million gallons of water are used EACH fracking job. 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used for each fracking job. This process can also cause small earth tremors. It distracts us from finding a renewable and non-damaging resource. Fracking also has advantages such as making oil production go up and reducing gas prices. However, the source of oil is not permanent.