Mining
Where are most mining operations located within Norway?
The coast
What are the three major sediment basins of Norway?
North Sea, Norwegian Sea, Barents Sea (Nordsjøen, Norskehavet, og Barentshavet)
In 2021, Norway ranked 8th.
What is Norway's national rock?
Larvikite
Name three types of mineral resources.
Minerals, natural stone, building materials, ores, energy sources
Why is oil and gas so found deep in the ground and not close to the surface?
There is a seal, a type of rock that isn't permeable or very porous preventing it from moving up.
How much oil and gas has Norway extracted? How much is undiscovered?
About two thirds has been extracted, about a fourth remains undiscovered.
What are the three forms of coal?
Anthracite, lignite, bituminous
What is the difference between reserves and resources?
Reserves are known deposits being used, resources are deposits that are known but not being used.
Why are stagnant, oxygen poor waters so important for oil and gas formation? Hint: respiration
Organic material can accumulate, if there is oxygen then organisms can respire the dead matter and you’ll no longer have accumulation
What are the negative consequences of oil and gas extraction?
Spills, pollution, high water demand, seismic activity
How many oil and gas fields does Norway have?
Fifty.
What's the "life cycle" of a mine?
Why were the sand deposits important for trapping? Why was the limestone important?
Describe the oil extraction process briefly (three steps). Be sure to explain why the step needs to happen.
Discovery, initial drilling, water injection; water injection needed because pressure is too low for oil to rise up of its own accord
Which ore is mined for aluminum? Bonus for an extra 50 points: What is the chemical compound?
Bauxite. Aluminum oxide hydrite Al₂O₃·xH₂O
Describe the differences between each of the four different mining methods.
Surface mining (stripping away surface), ground mining (digging into ground), in-situ mining (injection of chemicals), placer mining (using river to sift out ores). Team that correctly identified the most methods will get the points.
Triassic: continental rift; Middle Jurassic: North Sea begins to fill with water, deltas form; Late Jurassic: marine rift from North Sea to Finnmark; Cretaceous: climate warms and limestone deposited on top of rift zones forming the seal. Team whose timeline is the most correct will get the points.
Norway recently put on hold plans to begin deep-sea mining. Why is this have been significant to conservation? Hint: what are the consequences of terrestrial mining?
Clean-up and remediation would have been much more difficult. Cleaning up water sources of heavy metal poisoning is incredibly difficult so in an ocean, it would destroyed the marine environment.
How does seismic and seabed logging work?
Electromagnetic pulses are sent out into the ocean and receivers pick up the signal and send it back. The frequency at which it's sent back indicates how much fluid is in the seabed itself since rocks saturated with hydrocarbons have more resistivity to electric and magnetic waves. This data is then plotted using imaging software to visualize the seabed.