Vocabulary
Nonrenewable Energy Sources
The energy sources that are not replaced naturally.
Renewable Energy Sources
Energy sources that replenish themselves or are continuously present as a feature of the solar system.
Resource
a naturally occurring substance of use to humans that can potentially be extracted using current technology.
Reserves
Known deposits from which materials can be extracted profitably with existing technology under prevailing economic conditions.
Surface mining
Removing the material located on top of a vein of coal, called overburden, to get at the coal beneath.
Overburden
The material located on top of a vein of coal.
Underground Mining
When surface mining becomes too expensive, they use different types of openings to get to the coal.
Black Lung Disease
A respiratory condition that results from the accumulations of fine coal-dust particles in the miners' lungs.
Acid Mine Drainage
Occurs when the combined action of oxygen, water, and certain bacteria causes the sulfur in coal to form sulfuric acid.
Liquified natural gas
Natural gas that becomes a liquid.
Biomass
Any accumulation of organic material produced by living things.
Passive Solar System
A design that allows for the entrapment and transfer of heat from he sun to a building without the use of moving parts or machinery.
Active Solar System
A system that traps sunlight energy as heat energy and uses mechanical means to move it to another location.
Solar Furnace
A design that uses mirrors to focus the light at a central point that raises the temperature and allows for the production of steam.
Geothermal Energy
The heat energy from the Earths molten core.