| A | B |
|---|
| Mineral Resources | created in the rock and water cycles and by deposits left by living things |
| Minerals | Naturally occurying inorganic solids with a crystal structure and definite chemical composition |
| Metals | Elements that conduct electrical and thermal energy, are shiny, and usually hard at room temperature. |
| veins | dissolved metals are left behind in cracks in the ground when water infiltrates and goes away |
| salts | form when water evaporates and leaves dissolved minerals behind |
| crystals | formed when minerals cool - small when fast, large when slow |
| Fossil Fuels | created where enough living things died and became part of the sedimentary and metamorphic rock cycles |
| Coal | solid fossil fuel made of the decayed remains of living things. |
| mining | the process of removing resources from the ground |
| Reserves | known deposits of fossil fuels |
| Oil | liquid hydrocarbons from living or dead organisms |
| Natural Gas | gas hydrocarbons from living or dead organisms |
| topsoil | mixture of rock fragments, nutrients, water, air, and decaying living matter |
| erosion | the movement of topsoil |
| nutrient depletion | the removal of minerals from overuse of soil |
| desertification | the turning of rich soil into a desert or barren land |
| watershed | land area that supplies water to a river system. |
| divide | a ridge of land that separates watersheds |
| Reservoir | a lake that stores water for human use |
| aquifer | nderground rock or sediment that holds water |
