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Environmental Science Study Guide
Fossil Fuels
Critical Thinking
Be able to read, analyze, and give complete answers to questions like these.
1. Explain how the Earth’s climate was different during the Carboniferous period, and how this created
ideal conditions for creating what would become today’s coal deposits.
2. What continents have the largest deposits of coal now, as a result of the swamps present during the
Carboniferous period?
3. Briefly explain each of these types of surface mining of coal:
a. Open-Pit mining –
b. Strip mining –
c. Mountaintop removal –
4. Explain the relationship between working in a coal mine and developing Black Lung disease.
5. What element makes up the majority of coal?
6. What are the four main pollutants that are released from burning coal?
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Questions 7-12 reference this diagram of a coal-fired power plant.
7. What happens to the coal before it is fed into the boiler? Why?
8. How is the heat generated from burning the coal in the boiler captured?
9. How is the energy in steam converted into electricity?
10. Why is it important for power plants like this to be built next to sources of fresh water?
11. Where in this diagram would all of the air pollution be coming from?
12. What is eventually done with the waste ash from the boiler?
13. Where did the organic matter that formed crude oil come from?
14. Where are most of the world’s oil supplies located?
15. Crude oil can be distilled into several different fuels. Which two are the most-produced from oil?
16. The graph to the right shows U.S. oil production up through
2010. Approximately when did the United States hit “peak
oil”?
17. What compound makes up the majority of natural gas?
18. Natural gas is considered the cleanest-burning of all the fossil
fuels. What two waste products are given off by burning it?
19. Briefly explain, using the diagram to the right, how
hydraulic fracturing allows gas drillers to
extract methane from impermeable rock
formations.
20. List two ways that hydraulic fracturing can place water source at risk.
21. Why are coal, oil, and natural gas called “fossil fuels”?