Natural Resource Distribution

Natural resources are things we use from nature like wood, water, minerals, and fossil fuels.

Solar panels capture and convert sunlight to electricity; wind turbines convert motion energy of wind to electricity; humans use fossil fuels for heat, transportation, and industry; wood is used for building and for paper; etc.

It depends on the natural resource; groundwater is stored in some types of rock layers but not others; coal is found only in areas where swamp environments once existed; oil and gas can be found in rock layers associated with ancient ocean environments; and precious minerals form near continental plate boundaries.

Some minerals are mined; they form underground. Minerals like gold are found in streams like the gold found in California.

Water, wind, and sunlight are considered renewable.

Wood and fossil fuels.

Fuel for cars, heating our homes, and industry; wood for building; sunlight and wind to generate electricity.

Some natural resources like sunlight and wind are found everywhere, but other natural resources are unevenly distributed. Resources like oil, coal, and natural gas are only found where conditions were favorable to grow and preserve large quantities of animal or plant matter. Forests only grow in certain soils and temperature zones. Some countries have more groundwater than other countries.

Conservation biologists study the affect humans have on the environment to make sure humans are not hurting the ecosystem when they take natural resources. These scientists make sure when people are mining for coal or drilling for oil they are disturbing the environment as little as possible.

Metal ores are found near plate boundaries; magma that forms due to subduction can heat water in the ground. Hot water can dissolve minerals from one place and then carry and deposit them somewhere else, usually in fractures in rock. Some people use water heated by magma to heat homes and to generate electricity.

Fossil fuels like gas and oil are formed from animal and plant matter deeply buried by sediments. The animal and plant matter decays and over millions of years form oil and gas; if conditions are right, the oil and gas remain trapped below Earth’s surface. Coal forms from thick deposits of plant matter that accumulated in swampy areas. The decaying plants are under pressure from the thick layers of sediments that buried them; over time the plant matter forms coal.

Running water, like what can be found in a river, can be used to generate electricity; humans have built hydroelectric dams to harness the energy of running water. Freshwater stored as groundwater can be called a non-renewable resource because it is being used faster for drinking water and irrigation than it can be recharged.