Environment & Sustainability
This greenhouse gas is often released during coal mining and the extraction of oil and gas; it is far more potent than CO₂ over short timescales.
What is Methane?
This international organization sets labor standards, including those affecting miners worldwide.
What is the International Labour Organization?
This basic economic principle describes how resource prices increase as they become harder to extract.
What is scarcity?
This type of rock forms from cooled magma or lava.
What is igneous rock?
Name the form of hydrogen that is produced from fossil fuels.
What is gray hydrogen?
This environmental issue occurs when sulfide minerals react with oxygen and water to produce sulfuric acid.
What is acid mine drainage (AMD)
This term describes when companies move production to countries with weaker labor regulations.
What is offshoring?
This organization influences global oil prices through production quotas.
What is OPEC?
This mineral group, which dominates Earth’s crust, is made with 2 most abundant elemental compositions of the Earth's Crust.
What are silicates?
This metalloid is critical to create shock and thermal resistance glass (Pyrex).
What is Boron?
What is the name of the company primarily responsible for the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe?
What is British Petroleum?
This term refers to minerals mined using child labor or unsafe practices, often in informal sectors.
What are conflict minerals/artisanal mining outputs?
This energy source has seen rapidly falling costs and is now one of the cheapest forms of electricity in many regions.
What is solar energy?
Roughly how old is Midway Atoll? (Provide a range)
What is 20 - 30 million years old?
For Every American Born, how many pounds of minerals, metals, and fuels will they use in their lifetime? Please provide the answer in terms of scale (e.g., hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands…)
What is a million?
This energy storage concept uses excess electricity to split water into hydrogen for later use.
What is green hydrogen production (electrolysis)?
This concept describes companies being legally or socially responsible for labor conditions throughout their supply chains, not just their own factories.
What is corporate social responsibility (CSR) or supply chain accountability?
This concept explains why disruption of a single narrow passage like the Strait of Hormuz can cause global price spikes far larger than the percentage of supply it carries.
What is inelastic demand/supply in short run?
This process chemically alters the rock through hydrothermal or other fluids, resulting in a change in bulk chemical composition while the rock remains solid
What is metasomatism?
What is the material inside the nuclear fuel that "poisons" the nuclear reaction?
What is Fission product?
What is the biggest hydroelectric dam in the U.S. by power generation capacity?
What is Grand Coulee Dam?
This country developed the first mining law in 1842 that prohibited women and children from working underground in coal mines after a public outcry over working conditions.
What is the United Kingdom? (UK)
One of the two elements determines the criticalness of minerals/mineral resources. (to be called a critical mineral or resource)
What is the risk of supply chain disruption?
Name the intrusive igneous rock type which are often enriched in rare elements (Li, Be, Ta, Nb) that form gem minerals like tourmaline, beryl, and spodumene.
What is pegmatite?
Name the laboratory that ran the first experiment on Hot Dry Rock (HDR) / Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS). (Hint: Oppenheimer)
What is Los Alamos National Laboratory