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Glossary
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Below you will find key words and concepts that you should remember from this chapter.
crude oil  A liquid mixture of naturally occurring hydrocarbons.
(See page(s) 522)
geologic resources  Valuable materials of geologic origin that can be extracted from Earth.
(See page(s) 520)
heavy crude  Dense, viscous petroleum that flows slowly or not at all.
(See page(s) 525)
natural gas  A gaseous mixture of naturally occurring hydrocarbons.
(See page(s) 522)
nonrenewable resource  A resource that forms at extremely slow rates compared to its rate of consumption.
(See page(s) 520)
oil field  An area underlain by one or more oil pools.
(See page(s) 523)
oil pool  Underground accumulation of oil.
(See page(s) 522)
oil sand  Asphalt-cemented sand deposit.
(See page(s) 525)
oil shale  Shale with a high content of organic matter from which oil may be extracted by distillation.
(See page(s) 525)
oil trap  A set of conditions that hold petroleum in a reservoir rock and prevent its escape by migration.
(See page(s) 522)
open-pit mine  Mine in which ore is exposed at the surface in a large excavation.
(See page(s) 533)
ore  Naturally occurring material that can be profitably mined.
(See page(s) 530)
petroleum  Crude oil and natural gas. (Some geologists use petroleum as a synonym for oil.)
(See page(s) 522)
placer mine  Surface mines in which valuable mineral grains are extracted from stream bar or beach deposits.
(See page(s) 533)
reserves  The discovered deposits of a geologic material that are economically and legally feasible to recover under present circumstances.
(See page(s) 521)
reservoir rock  A rock that is sufficiently porous and permeable to store and transmit petroleum.
(See page(s) 522)
resources  The total amount of a geologic material in all its deposits, discovered and undiscovered (see reserves).
(See page(s) 521)
source rock  A rock containing organic matter that is converted to petroleum by burial and other postdepositional changes.
(See page(s) 522)
strip mine  A mine in which the valuable material is exposed at the surface by removing a strip of overburden.
(See page(s) 533)







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