Unit 2 Knowledge Organiser: 2.3

Unit 2 Knowledge Organiser:

2.3 What are rocks and how are they a natural resource?

2.3 What are rocks and how are they a natural resource?

For hundreds of years we have used coal for energy production. In 1750, the world’s Industrial Revolution began in the UK, later spreading to the USA, and other countries in Europe.

2.3 What are rocks and how are they a natural resource?

These factories developed the use of steam powered machines to mass produce manufactured goods. 

Coal

The steam was produced by burning coal in vast quantities. Before 1700 coal was used locally in homes.

COAL MINE

Coal Mines

Coal mines were small-scale, using coal that was near the surface and easy to get at. As coal was needed in greater quantities, coal mines got much deeper, and bigger, and new sources needed to be discovered.

Geology

People began to realise the importance of understanding the distribution of rocks and minerals, and geology developed.

Mining towns

As coal was difficult and expensive to move, the new factories located on coalfields. Towns and cities grew rapidly around the mines and factories to house the workers, for example, Manchester and Swansea.

Formation of Coal

• Plant matter fell to the bottom of the swamp and began to decay.

• The levels of decaying plant matter built up.

Formation of Coal

• More water and dirt washed into the swamp and halted the decay.

• The plant matter became peat.

• The weight of the water and dirt compacted the peat.

Formation of Coal

• Under the heat and pressure oxygen was forced out of the peat.

• Rich hydrocarbon deposits were left behind.

• The plants had gradually turned into coal.