What is a geological resource?
Geological resources are a type of natural resource. This means they have been produced by the environment.
Geological resources are found underground. These include:
- Minerals like china clay, also known as kaolin
- Metals like tin and gold
- Fossil fuels like gas and oil
Examples of geological resources
Minerals are naturally occurring substances, such as limestone, clay, iron ore and gold.
Aggregates are materials often used for building, such as sand, gravel or crushed stone.
Sand is the second most extracted natural material by humans, after water.
Watch: The different types of natural resources
I’m stocking up on supplies. I need fuel, food and clothing and the UK is a good place to find all these things because it has a wide range of natural resources.
Natural resources are materials or substances that are produced by the environment, such as crops for food, oil for fuel or even wind, rivers and tides for generating electricity!
Our mild climate is good for growing crops like wheat and barley, as well as for raising livestock for meat and dairy produce.
Grassy hills are a habitat for sheep that provide wool for making fabrics.
These are called agricultural resources because they come from farms.
Resources found underground are called geological resources.
These include minerals like china clay, metals like tin and fossil fuels like gas and oil.
Fossil fuels were formed from the remains of plants and animals that died millions of years ago and we use them to power everything from cars and aeroplanes to gas cookers.
But nowadays we are using more power from renewable resources like wind and water instead.
Different countries have different natural resources.
South Africa has lots of gold and New Zealand has lots of sheep, Venezuela has lots of oil and Iceland has lots of fish and if I eat all these beans I’ll have lots of gas!
How do we get resources from the ground?
To get geological resources we extract (dig) them from the ground. We do this by:
Quarrying is the surface (ground level) extraction of minerals.
In the UK we quarry industrial and construction minerals such as sand and clay.
Mining is the underground extraction of minerals such as metal ores, coal and gemstones.
The North Sea has been an area for mining fossil fuels such as oil and gas.
In the future the world needs to focus on green, cleaner forms of energy, such as wind power, instead.
Activities
Activity 1: Geological or agricultural resource?
Activity 2: Geological resources quiz
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