Water Pollution
This acidic runoff forms when sulfide minerals react with air and water near mines.
What is acid mine drainage?
Surface mining often removes this nutrient-rich top layer of soil.
What is topsoil?
Mining often destroys these places where plants and animals live.
What are habitats?
Dust from mining can contribute to problems with this body system.
What is the respiratory system?
Mining equipment commonly burns this type of fuel, releasing greenhouse gases.
What is diesel fuel?
Mining can increase this in rivers, making the water cloudy and harming aquatic life.
What is sedimentation?
This mining method creates large terraced pits visible from the air.
What is open-pit mining?
The clearing of forests for mining contributes to this environmental issue.
What is deforestation?
Coal miners have historically suffered from this lung disease caused by inhaling coal dust.
What is black lung disease?
Coal mining and use contribute significantly to emissions of this greenhouse gas when coal is burned.
What is carbon dioxide?
This toxic metal often contaminates water from gold mining operations.
What is mercury?
Shaft mining can release dangerous gases underground, increasing the risk of these sudden underground disasters.
What are Mine Explosions
Species that are at risk of extinction may be especially vulnerable to mining-related habitat loss; they are called this.
What are endangered species?
Exposure to this heavy metal from mining can damage the nervous system.
What is lead?
This greenhouse gas can be released during underground coal mining.
What is methane?
When pollutants from mining enter groundwater, they can contaminate these underground water sources.
What are aquifers?
The sinking or collapse of land above underground mines is called this.
What is subsidence?
When a habitat is broken into smaller, isolated pieces by mining, it is called.
What is Habitat Fragmentation?
Communities near mines may face higher risks of illness due to contamination of this essential resource.
What is drinking water?
Blasting and excavation often release large amounts of this air pollutant made of tiny particles.
What is particulate matter?
This process removes harmful pollutants from mine wastewater before it is released into the environment.
What is water treatment?
This process restores mined land by reshaping terrain and replanting vegetation.
What is reclamation?
The variety of life in an ecosystem that can be reduced by mining activities.
What is biodiversity?
Long-term exposure to silica dust can cause this serious lung disease.
What is silicosis?
The increase in Earth's average temperature partly caused by greenhouse gas emissions from mining and energy production is called this.
What is climate change/global warming?