Key Words: Environmental Studies 2.3

Resource - the name of a material or the total amount of a material that could theoretically be exploited

Crust - made up of plates of the crust that form the continents or the ocean floor

Mantle - molten and semi-molten layer of the Earth between the core and crust

Ore - a body of rock that contains minerals that can be exploited

In situ - in the place where it is found

Igneous - rocks or processes involving molten rock

Batholith - a large underground mass of solidified molten magma

Hydrothermal - processes or deposits associated with hot water

Regolith - the solid rock particles left after weathering

Solute - dissolved substance

Alluvial - Materials such as soil or weathered rock particles deposited by a river or other flowing water

Placer deposits - deposits of dense minerals carried by water

Metamorphic - rocks changed by heat and pressure without fully melting

Sedimentary - materials or processes that involve material being carried by air or water then deposited

Reserve - the proportion of a resource that can be economically exploited with existing technology

Overburden - the rock above…