World Shale Resource Assessments Report , Energy Information Administration Assessments of shale oil and shale gas resources for many individual countries around the world. Related Frequently Asked Questions. What are tar sands? American Geosciences Institute. What is renewable natural gas? What is coalbed methane?
Acidizing happens most of the time with fracking. This way, the acid is dissolving the rocks that may be on the way of the shale gas, so the gas can go upwards into the streamline. Fracking is a relatively new method of natural gas extraction. It is only available since the 90s and it was invented by George P. Mitchell from Texas to solve the largening consumption of natural gas in the United States. The US is the biggest natural gas consumer in the world, even though the country does not have many reservoirs.
And that is the biggest advantage: with hydraulic fracturing, we have more available reservoirs all over the world, delaying the date when we will run out of fossil fuels. A disadvantage is, however, that fracking has a big environmental impact.
Natural habitats can collapse because of the high amount of water that is used. Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing. Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher.
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You cannot download interactives. Individuals, communities, and countries depend on a variety of different resources to help them thrive: electricity, timber, oil, water, and food to name a few.
Because these basic resources are such a large part of our daily lives, it is important that we manage them responsibly to ensure future generations have what they need. Human civilization heavily impacts the environment and the rich natural resources we depend on. All communities face the challenge of managing resources responsibly, not only for themselves, but for the sake of the world around them.
Learn more about how individuals and communities can manage their resources to support themselves and the world around them. However, over time, there has been a shift in demand for cheaper and cleaner fuel options, such as the nonrenewable energy source of natural gas, and renewable options like solar power and wind energy. Each energy resource has its advantages and disadvantages. Explore nonrenewable and renewable options with this collection on energy resources.
Different regions have access to different renewable or nonrenewable natural resources such as freshwater, fossil fuels, fertile soil, or timber based on their geographic location and past geologic processes. For example, the Great Plains region of the United States is known for its abundance of fertile soil. As a result, its main industry is agriculture.
Corn, soybeans, and wheat are globally exported from this region and serve as the main economy. On the other side of the spectrum, the desert southwestern region of the United States depends on the Central Arizona Project canals to transport water from the Colorado River in order to support agriculture and urban areas. Use these materials to explore the interconnected nature of resources and their distribution.
Students discover how geologists use the composition and location of rocks to find deposits of oil and natural gas. They use an interactive computational model to explore how hydraulic fracturing releases natural gas from deep shale formations. See how hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, releases petroleum or natural gas trapped in shale rock formations.
Petroleum, or crude oil, is a fossil fuel and nonrenewable source of energy. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Skip to content. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. Oil shale is a type of sedimentary rock that is rich in kerogen. Kerogen is a part of rock that breaks down and releases hydrocarbons when heated.
Hydrocarbon s are substances made entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Petroleum and natural gas are probably the most familiar hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons in oil shale can be used as an alternative to petroleum or natural gas.
Like traditional petroleum, natural gas, and coal, oil shale and kerogen are fossil fuels. Fossil fuel s developed from the remains of algae, spores, plants, pollen, and a variety of other organisms that lived millions of years ago in ancient lakes, seas, and wetland s. When these organisms died and drifted to the seabed, they were buried under new layers of plants and sediment.
They encountered intense pressure and heat, decomposed, and slowly transformed into the waxy substance known as kerogen. There is not a consistent chemical composition of kerogen, because it has a variety of origins. Kerogen that formed from land plants called humic kerogen usually has a higher oxygen content than kerogen formed from plankton called planktonic kerogen.
However, all types of kerogen consist mainly of hydrocarbons; smaller amounts of sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen; and a variety of mineral s. Oil shale can be thought of as a precursor to oil and natural gas. A sedimentary rock, oil shale is found all over the world, including China, Israel, and Russia. The United States, however, has the most shale resources. Shale is a rock composed mainly of clay-size mineral grains. These tiny grains are usually clay minerals such as illite, kaolinite, and smectite.
Shale usually contains other clay-size mineral particles such as quartz , chert , and feldspar. Other constituents might include organic particles, carbonate minerals, iron oxide minerals, sulfide minerals, and heavy mineral grains. These "other constituents" in the rock are often determined by the shale's environment of deposition, and they often determine the color of the rock. Black shale: Organic-rich black shale.
Natural gas and oil are sometimes trapped in the tiny pore spaces of this type of shale. Like most rocks, the color of shale is often determined by the presence of specific materials in minor amounts. Just a few percent of organic materials or iron can significantly alter the color of a rock. Shale gas plays: Since the late s, dozens of previously unproductive black organic shales have been successfully developed into valuable gas fields.
See the article: " What is Shale Gas? A black color in sedimentary rocks almost always indicates the presence of organic materials. Just one or two percent organic materials can impart a dark gray or black color to the rock.
In addition, this black color almost always implies that the shale formed from sediment deposited in an oxygen-deficient environment. Any oxygen that entered the environment quickly reacted with the decaying organic debris. If a large amount of oxygen was present, the organic debris would all have decayed. An oxygen-poor environment also provides the proper conditions for the formation of sulfide minerals such as pyrite , another important mineral found in most black shales.
The presence of organic debris in black shales makes them the candidates for oil and gas generation. If the organic material is preserved and properly heated after burial, oil and natural gas might be produced.
The Barnett Shale, Marcellus Shale , Haynesville Shale , Fayetteville Shale , and other gas-producing rocks are all dark gray or black shales that yield natural gas. Gray shales sometimes contain a small amount of organic matter. However, gray shales can also be rocks that contain calcareous materials or simply clay minerals that result in a gray color. Utica and Marcellus Shale: Two black organic shales in the Appalachian Basin are thought to contain enough natural gas to supply the United States for several years.
These are the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale. Shales that are deposited in oxygen-rich environments often contain tiny particles of iron oxide or iron hydroxide minerals such as hematite , goethite, or limonite. Just a few percent of these minerals distributed through the rock can produce the red, brown, or yellow colors exhibited by many types of shale. The presence of hematite can produce a red shale. The presence of limonite or goethite can produce a yellow or brown shale.
Green shales are occasionally found. This should not be surprising because some of the clay minerals and micas that make up much of the volume of these rocks are typically a greenish color. Natural gas shale well: In less than ten years, shale has skyrocketed to prominence in the energy sector. New drilling and well development methods such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling can tap the oil and natural gas trapped within the tight matrix of organic shales. Hydraulic properties are characteristics of a rock such as permeability and porosity that reflect its ability to hold and transmit fluids such as water, oil, or natural gas.
Shale has a very small particle size, so the interstitial spaces are very small. In fact they are so small that oil, natural gas, and water have difficulty moving through the rock. Shale can therefore serve as a cap rock for oil and natural gas traps, and it also is an aquiclude that blocks or limits the flow of groundwater. Although the interstitial spaces in a shale are very small, they can take up a significant volume of the rock.
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