Modern industrialized society depends on remarkable quantities of natural resources to maintain the quality of our lives. Every material good we use every day must be extracted from the Earth through some process.

The website of the Mineral Information Institute has a number very nice illustrations of the raw materials we use everyday - even in products we take for granted.

Follow the link below to this exercise related to the quantity of natural resources used in a typical automobile.

Earth Materials in a Subaru

1. How many basic elements are used in the manufacture of a Subaru?

2. From what earth materials were these elements extracted?

3. Create a list documenting the elements used in automobile manufacture and the likely geologic sources of those elements.

4. What geologic settings are most likely to contain the raw materials used in automobile manufacture?

5. Create a list of those materials used in automobile manufacture and associate that list with the most likely geologic rock type hosting that material (for example: clay would be found in sedimentary rock).

6. Make a list of other products you use every day and try to determine what the geologic source of those materials might be.