Describe a Sedimentary Rock.
July 8, 2020 Comments Off on Describe a Sedimentary Rock. Uncategorized Assignment-help
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NOTE: Please use INTEXT CITATIONS. No outside sources needed. Sources needed are included. Sedimentary Rock U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program, Mineral Commodity Summary— Sand & GravelBy: Wallace P. Bolen, U.S.G.S. Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2011, p. 136—37.https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nmic/construction-sand-and-gravel-statistics-and-informationWhile you may not think of sand and gravel as a significant economic Earth resource, you can see in the Mineral Commodity Summary published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Resources Program, that these clastic sedimentary materials represented a nearly $6 billion industry in the United States in 2010, involving 3,900 businesses and employing approximately 35,000 people in recent years. The sand and gravel industry is an important part of the U.S. economy, and production rates mirror overall economic expansion and contraction.Read the USGS summary and learn where sand and gravel resources originate, why the quantities produced have fluctuated in recent years, and how they are used for various products and other applications. Although the USGS considers sand and gravel to be a mineral commodity, it doesn’t meet your textbook’s definition of a “mineral,” which was explained in Chapter 5. For practical reasons, the USGS classifies essentially all Earth materials as mineral, energy, or biological resources.While you can answer the following questions based on the summary report (linked above), you may view the full USGS report if you are interested in a more comprehensive review of sand and gravel resources:http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/mcs/2015/mcs2015.pdf For this week’s discussion:Read the article linked aboveIn paragraph format (5 sentences ~150+ words) answer the following 4 questions:A major economic recession began in the United States and globally in 2008, and a drop in sand and gravel production and consumption is also observed in the mineral commodity summary. Is this simply a coincidence, or is there a cause-and-effect relationship? Explain your answer.In which U.S. states is sand and gravel most actively produced? Why do you think these states are major sources of these materials?The summary states that recycling of materials is increasingly offsetting “virgin aggregate” production. Most of the recycling occurs when old roads are resurfaced or concrete buildings are demolished in preparation for new construction. What are the advantages of recycling these construction materials compared with producing new resources?What is the major limitation to further exploiting global sand and gravel resources?