Types of minerals. What are minerals

V different regions world miners work hard in coal mines deep underground

So unlike each other, iron ore and oil, marble and natural gas are actually united by the common name “minerals”. Fossils - because they are extracted from the bowels of the Earth, and useful ones - because they serve a person, that is, at his will they turn into a variety of necessary items that create comfort, provide security, heat, feed ... All of them are necessary to ensure a comfortable life for people.

What are minerals

The bowels of our planet are fraught with huge reserves of minerals. Some of them lie near the surface of the Earth, while others - at great depths, under the thickness of "empty" rock.

According to their physical state, minerals are divided into:

• solid- various ores, coal, rock salt and etc.;
• liquid- oil, mineral water;
• gaseous- combustible gas.

Three groups are distinguished according to the features of use:

• combustible- coal, peat, oil shale, oil, natural gas;
• metal- ores of ferrous, non-ferrous, rare, noble and radioactive metals;
• non-metallic minerals- various salts, limestone, clay, sand, stones, etc.

Metallic minerals serve to extract metals from them. Non-metallic minerals include building materials, ore-mineral non-metallic raw materials - mica, graphite, diamonds and chemical mineral raw materials - potassium salts, phosphates, sulfur.

A deposit is an accumulation of minerals. Groups of closely spaced deposits of the same mineral are called "basins".

fossil fuels

A special group of minerals is formed by different kinds fuel. These are peat, coal, oil shale, oil and combustible gases. They contain carbon and, when combined with oxygen during combustion, they release heat.

Fossil fuels are used for more than just fuel. They serve as an indispensable raw material for the production of various products. Coal, oil shale, oil and gas are used in the production of plastics, synthetic fabrics, explosives, medicines, paints, technical oils, soaps and other products.

Oil extracted from underground is pumped through pipes for thousands of kilometers to plants for separation into fractions and processing.

bundle of energy

Oil- flammable oily liquid of dark color. It is extracted mainly by drilling wells on land, as well as at the bottom of the seas and oceans. Oil is a "bundle of energy". Using only 1 ml of this substance, you can heat a whole bucket of water by 1 ° C.

In the morning, people wash themselves with soap, which includes fatty acid derived from oil

Eco fuel

Natural gas, as well as oil and coal, was formed in the bowels of the earth from organic matter vegetable and animal origin under the influence of high pressures and temperatures.

For the transport of liquefied natural gas use special vessels - gas carriers

Natural gas is an excellent fuel and has many positive properties - high calorific value, good transportability, and greater environmental friendliness than oil and coal. Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel. When burned, it forms much less harmful substances than coal and oil, and therefore is used very widely. Fuel is pumped through gas pipelines for many thousands of kilometers. Moreover, the proven gas reserves are greater than the proven oil reserves.

Heat source

Coal is one of the most important minerals. It is used as a solid fuel, releasing a lot of heat when burned. In addition, paints, plastics and other valuable materials are obtained from it.

Coal was formed from dead plants. Having lived their lives, trees and other plants died, fell, were covered with silt and sand, compressed, and then they were charred. This process began in the presence of oxygen, and continued in an oxygen-free environment. At the same time, plant remains lost oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, while carbon was retained. This is how peat and coal were formed.

Coal is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other minor constituents. According to the hydrocarbon content, coals are divided into brown (65-70% carbon), stone (about 80% carbon), anthracites (up to 96% carbon).

Coal lies in the ground in layers up to 100 m thick. Its extraction is carried out by open or closed methods. open way mining is used in those coal deposits where it lies close to the surface of the earth. Coal seams are blown up, and then pieces of coal are loaded by excavators into huge trucks or railway cars. At closed method mines are built, which are deep vertical wells with horizontal tunnels. They employ miners who, with the help of powerful special harvesters crush large layers hard coal and bring it upstairs.

Question 1. What does the earth's crust consist of?

It consists of several layers. The top is a layer of sedimentary rocks. The thickness of this layer is up to 10-15 km. Beneath it lies a granite layer. The rocks that compose it, in their own way physical properties similar to granite. The thickness of this layer is from 5 to 15 km. Under the granite layer is a basalt layer, consisting of basalt and rocks, the physical properties of which resemble basalt. The thickness of this layer is from 10 to 35 km.

Question 2. What are rocks and minerals?

Rocks are called bodies, consisting of several minerals. By origin, igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks are distinguished. Minerals are bodies that have a homogeneous composition.

Question 3. What are the types of rocks and minerals?

By origin, rocks are divided into three groups: igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic.

Question 4. Does the quantity and variety of minerals change in the process of development of human society?

Yes, the quantity and variety of minerals in the process of development of human society is changing. This is due to the fact that a person extracts minerals and they are becoming less and less.

Question 5. What rocks are called minerals?

The breeds that a person uses in Everyday life and economic activity are called minerals.

Question 6. What groups are minerals divided into?

Depending on the nature of use, fuel, ore and non-metallic minerals are distinguished.

Question 7. What is geological exploration?

When searching for minerals, knowledge of the features of the relief, the geological history of the territory gives grounds for assumptions about whether there can be useful material or not. This process is called geological exploration.

Question 8. What metals are called ferrous, which are non-ferrous, and which are precious?

Ferrous metals - iron and its alloys (steels, ferroalloys, cast irons). According to their physical properties and purpose, non-ferrous metals are conditionally divided into heavy (copper, lead, zinc, tin, nickel) and light (aluminum, titanium). precious metals- gold, silver, platinum and platinum group metals.

Question 9. What are the main patterns of placement of minerals?

Minerals of sedimentary origin are most often mined on the plains, and igneous and metamorphic origin - in low mountains.

Question 10. Give examples of the use of minerals in everyday life, in human economic activity.

Smelting various products, smelting various ores, making various ornaments, producing gasoline, using natural gas for domestic needs, using coal as fuel for boilers, etc.

"Black gold", "liquid gold" ... how much a person extracts from the bowels of the earth! Mining has reached such a scale that we are already talking about the depletion of natural resources in the coming centuries - but we cannot stop: stop mining, and civilization will be paralyzed, nothing else has yet been invented ... how did these natural "treasures" arise, which humanity does not get tired of digging?

Let's start with the most important mineral resource, on which the economy of many countries (including ours) is based, because of which wars are started, destroying civilians, and the depletion of whose reserves is most of all worried. Of course, we are talking about oil. The process of its formation began about 600 million years ago, when most of the surface of our planet was under water. Small living organisms lived in the water. Dying, they sank to the bottom, covered with silt, and so on layer by layer. Overlapping each other, the layers condensed, lowered, the temperature and pressure in them became higher and higher. And then anaerobic bacteria got down to business and decomposed organic matter into hydrocarbons. At the same time, gas was also formed. Hydrocarbons in the form of a liquid and gas bubbles under high pressure gradually seeped into the voids, but sooner or later they reached a layer of such rock, through which it was impossible to seep through, oil or gas accumulated there. Meanwhile, the Earth was changing, where once there was an ocean, now land - and many accumulations of oil and gas that arose in this way ended up on land.

Coal is also of organic origin. Organisms, more precisely, plants that gave rise to it, lived on Earth in a certain historical period, which is called so: the Carboniferous period (or Carboniferous). At that time, the entire surface of the Earth "gathered" into two continents - Laurasia and Gondwana. The coastal low plains of both continents were constantly flooded with water, swamps were formed, occupying vast territories. The climate throughout these continents was tropical, and in such a climate plants felt very good and they developed rapidly, multiplied quickly. It was the time of giant tree ferns that reached a height of 45 meters. Animals simply did not have time to eat all this “splendor” while it was growing, but when the plants died naturally, there were so many of them that putrefactive bacteria did not have time to process them, and all this plant mass accumulated in swamps. True, there were still bacteria in the swamps, they processed the plant mass, but at a certain stage of this process, acids began to be released, and the activity of bacteria became impossible. This is how peat was formed. It turned out to be buried under new layers, the pressure literally “squeezed” gases and water out of it, and it gradually turned into coal. Some deposits of coal were destroyed by the movements of the earth's crust, but where it gradually descended, buried under new deposits, we have coal deposits.

As for metal deposits, magma is involved in their origin, intruding from the Earth's mantle into the earth's crust. Only a small part of it is poured onto the earth's surface in the form of volcanic eruptions. Basically, it freezes in the form of huge reservoirs. When such a reservoir cools down, light elements float, and heavy ones sink to the bottom, so there are deposits of iron, nickel, copper, platinum, tungsten.

But this happens only with the so-called. the main magma, which contains silicon oxide in an amount of at least 50% silicon oxide. If we are talking about acid magma (more than 50% silicon oxide), then the process looks different. There are a lot of gases in such magma that destroy metal compounds, and they cannot precipitate immediately and concentrate in the remains that did not have time to cool. These remnants, saturated with gases and elements dissolved in them, penetrate through cracks in the earth's crust, cool down, and form veins consisting of feldspar and quartz, including gems, tin, uranium, mica.

Minerals also arise under the influence of processes near the Earth's surface. Water and air destroy rocks, their particles enter into chemical reactions with oxygen, water, carbon dioxide, the products of these reactions are carried away by water, and they settle to the bottom. This is how deposits of clay and gravel are formed. Those metals that do not enter into chemical reactions (for example, gold) remain on the river bottom in the form of placers.

In a word, the mechanisms of formation of minerals are different. Some of them have been stopped, for example, since the appearance of mushrooms, the formation of coal has become impossible: in the course of their life, they destroy lingin, a substance contained in wood, without which coal cannot form. Other processes are still going on. But even these processes take millions of years! So it is really not superfluous for mankind to think about the fact that natural resources may end!

One of the most valuable sources of energy for the world industry at the present time are the solid Mankind is unlikely to be able to do without them. Among other things, the brilliant Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev said: “You can also heat with banknotes.” The scientist meant that it would be more useful to use these resources for the synthesis of the substances required by man.

Modern science constantly confirms his correctness. Oddly enough, but in many respects we owe to the ancient flora the riches that lie deep underground. It was the ancient ferns and trees that formed many useful resources over time. By the way, what minerals were formed from ancient plants? Well, let's find out!

General characteristics of fuel types

All of these fuels contain huge amounts of carbon. They were all formed from plant residues, on which for millions of years acted high blood pressure and high temperature. Some ancient plant fuels are well over 650 million years old. Approximately 80% of these fossils were formed during the Tertiary period. It is to these times that we owe the fact that mineral resources still provide us with everything we need.

The main feature of their formation should be considered the fact that at that time there was still little oxygen on the planet, which now oxidizes organic matter very quickly, but there is a lot of carbon and compounds based on it. Sedimentary rocks quickly conserved huge masses of substances in the thickness of the earth.

In order for you to better navigate this issue, we have prepared a table. Minerals are far from randomly located in the bowels of the earth.

However, among some scientists, the theory of the abiogenic origin of many fossil fuels is popular, which explains their occurrence by a combination of various factors that led to the appearance of complex carbon compounds from simple inorganic substances.

This point of view also has its right to life, but most scientists are still confident that the vast majority of deposits have a biological origin. Well, what minerals were formed from ancient plants? We will talk about this now.

Importance for industry and people

As we have already said, many of these substances are a real storehouse for the modern chemical industry. The same coal contains many compounds, which in other cases can be obtained only as a result of complex and expensive synthesis. For example, humic acids, which are not so common in nature and are quite difficult for artificial synthesis, are massively obtained from cheap and widespread brown coal.

In principle, economic geography will tell you about all this. minerals play essential role in the formation of a normal industrial economy of any country.

It should be remembered that the full use of many plant resources is possible only if a person is well aware of the nuances of their formation. First, we will consider the coals we have already mentioned more than once, since the process of their formation is very interesting. Coals, like other major minerals of plant origin, were formed by various plants in the process of their death.

Characteristics of the formation of humus coals

A very long time ago, when giant dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, beautiful lush forests grew in vast expanses. The conditions were ideal for their growth and development: there is a lot of organic matter in the soil, and the atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide. However, these same conditions contributed to the fact that the plants died off very rapidly. Their parts fell to the ground, where they quickly decomposed, since they were not protected in any way from the oxidizing action of air.

The combination of all these factors led to a very rapid decomposition of cellulose. Giant masses of vegetation turned into a real "cocktail" of humic substances, diluted with small amounts of resins, waxes and paraffins. However, all this mass was quickly decomposed by microorganisms, and therefore there was no particularly rapid accumulation of organic matter at that time. The main mineral reserves appeared somewhat later.

So how was coal formed directly?

In the manner described above, dry peat was formed, which is still sufficient on the surface of our planet at the present time. As a rule, no further metamorphoses occurred to him, since most often he was covered with a layer of sand and earth, reliably preserving organic matter from the effects of oxygen and microorganisms. Such a mass was extremely plastic, and therefore there was no further separation or mixing.

Since there was very little undecomposed organic matter in the thickness of peat, further processes there was no decay. Thus, the temperature in the thickness of the layers always remained at the same level.

pressure and time...

However, over time, the layers gradually compacted due to caking. Gradually, humic acids were converted into humites, resins underwent a decarboxylation process, and only waxes remained unchanged for millennia. This is how brown humus coals were formed. There are especially many of them in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. These are the region's most abundant minerals (and an important source of income, of course).

Influenced by a range of factors external environment their gradual metamorphosis took place, as a result of which stone humus coals were obtained. The main role in this process belongs to high pressure and no less high temperature. Under these conditions, humic acids began to rapidly decompose, resins and waxes underwent natural polymerization.

All this led to the synthesis of infusible, completely insoluble compounds. It is thanks to them that this grade of coal has survived to this day. It lies at relatively shallow depths, and therefore, subject to slightly different physical and chemical properties it would inevitably be washed out. And what minerals were formed from ancient plants, in addition to the humus coal described above?

About the process of formation of mixed type coals

It should be noted that in nature the process of formation of pure humus compounds proceeded extremely rarely. Much more often there was a mixed process. Scientists suggest that he went in several directions at once. As a rule, all this happened at the bottom of ancient reservoirs, on the site of which mineral deposits are now located.

Humic substances were gradually brought there with rainwater and slowly, over the course of centuries, settled on the bottom. Plankton, which actively developed with such an abundance of organic matter, gradually mixed with all this mass. But things could have been completely different.

After powerful hurricanes and heavy rains hit the land, a huge amount of humic substances and various mineral compounds fell into the water bodies. At first, it was heavy minerals that settled at the bottom, and humic acids acted on them as powerful oxidizing agents. Gradually, all this mass was subjected to polymerization. Since there was very little oxygen at the bottom of the reservoirs, the substances eventually came under the influence of the dehydration process. This is how coal of mixed composition was formed.

These minerals of Russia are extremely common in the Eastern part of our country.

On the chemical composition of coals

In general, their composition is not particularly diverse: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur. The only difference is mass fraction of all these substances, since it is precisely by their percentage that one can confidently determine not only the type of fossil fuel, but even the region of its origin and production. In order for you to have at least an approximate idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthis issue, we will analyze the composition of the average brown humus coal.

Classification of substances that make up coals

The most typical substances that are part of any of its varieties are called coal formers. Here is their complete list:

• Oddly enough, squirrels. During the hydrolysis of coal, scientists noticed that the resulting mixture contains a certain amount of amino acids. The presence of these substances in the thickness of the layers of fossil fuels is explained quite simply: these are protozoa preserved in ancient times, as well as the remains of more highly developed organisms. In any case, many mineral deposits often boast a collection worthy of a paleontological museum.
• Of course, cellulose. This complex carbohydrate, which is the main building material of any plant life form, makes up a considerable weight part of both coals and oil shale (we will talk about them below).
• Waxes, which we have repeatedly mentioned. Represent esters some carboxylic acids and aliphatic alcohols.
• resins. This is a very complex mixture of all the same carboxylic acids, as well as saponifiable and non-saponifiable substances. Under certain specific conditions, they are easily decarboxylated and rapidly polymerized. They are a kind of “link” for coal, as they hold its components together during the primary compression process.

It is the almost identical composition of all fossil fuels that speaks of their vegetable and partially animal origin. Advocates of the abiotic occurrence of the same oil fail to find sufficiently convincing arguments with which to refute these factual data. In any case, any map of minerals (organic) will show that their deposits are mainly located in the places of ancient seas rich in organic matter.

Basic information about coal mining

The characteristics and methods of this process fully depend on the depth of the formations. If this does not exceed one hundred meters, then an open, quarry method of development is possible. It often happens that with an increase in the depth of the cut, the shaft method becomes more economically feasible.

On the territory of our country, the level of the deepest mine is approximately 1200 meters. Any map of Russia's minerals will show that most of them are in Siberia. This region is deservedly considered a real pantry, a granary of nature.

Other important substances

It should be noted that accumulations of substances of great industrial value are often found in coal seams. These include some valuable geological rocks (marble, for example), a huge amount of methane, as well as rare, scattered chemical elements. For example, some varieties of brown coal contain a lot of germanium, without which the modern radio-electronic industry is unthinkable, since it is on its basis that many types of semiconductors are created.

in modern industry

Long gone are the days when this type of mineral was used exclusively as a fuel. As we have already noted, some rare chemical elements are extracted from it, coal serves as a raw material for the production of many types of plastics. It has been known since the Second World War that artificial gasoline can be made from it.

It was these minerals in Russia that largely ensured the intensive growth of industry after the revolution. They also help keep the economy at a consistently high level.

oil shale

It is a solid vegetable origin from the group of solid caustobioliths. The main feature of slates, which provided them with such a high popularity in last years, is the resin included in their composition. It is obtained by distillation. Its value lies in the fact that physical and chemical properties it is very close to oil, but at the same time the cost of its production is much lower than the oil field.

Differential Composition

The main difference between shale and all the same coal is that it contains more minerals. Its organic part is kerogen. Only in shale top quality its share reaches 70%, while in all other cases the organic content does not exceed 30%. Kerogen is the fossil remains of the oldest unicellular algae.

That part of them that has not lost traces of its cellular structure over the centuries is thallomoalginite. Accordingly, completely degraded are called colloalginite. In addition, in shales it is quite often possible to find even parts higher plants that have been on our planet since time immemorial.

Here are some minerals formed from ancient plants. We hope that from this article you have received all the information you were interested in.