Geologic Resources

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Excluding soil and water we group geologic resources into three general categories: (1) source of energy, (2) source of metal, and (3) nonmetallic sources of construction material. Energy resources, like petroleum and uranium, provide the power that drives the modern world. Metallic resources, such as iron ore, enable us to create metals, which provide strength to modern construction and help many technologies operate – for example, by conducting electricity or sparking motors. The non metallic resources, including building stones and road gravels, have a longer history in the development of civilization, but nonetheless are vital to the modern world as well. Some geological resources are renewable, that is, they are replenished by natural processes fast enough that people can use them continuously. Water is the best example. Most geologic resources, however, are nonrenewable. They form very slowly, often over millions of years under unusual conditions in restricted geographic settings. Humans extract nonrenewable resources much faster than nature replaces them. The annual rate of extraction of crude oil, for example, is on the order of a million times faster than natural rates of replenishment.