Stage 2
LMS guide
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Welcome. This page looks at fossil fuels.
Coal, natural gas and oil are fossil fuels, the coal can be black or brown. Coal is dead plants that grew in swamps, sediment built up on top of the plants, the temperature and
pressure increased, turning it to coal. The black coal is older and produces more energy, it is found in layers (seams). Black coal is mined by tunnel mining or open-cut mining.
Tunnel mining is digging shafts down to coal seams, then tunnelling into the seam to remove the coal
Open-cut mining is digging a large hole on the Earths surface and getting to the coal seams from above and removing exposed coal.
Oil and natural gas are made up of organisms that lived in the sea. The remains of the organisms collected at bottom of oceans. Over time, the dead organisms were covered by sediments and under high pressure and temperature changed into crude oil and natural gas. Deep drilling is how oil and gas are mined. The heat produced when fossil fuels are burnt creates electricity
To find out how electricity is generated using fossil fuels please click HERE.
Last Modified 4/15/05 1:56 PM