The Water Cycle and Oil Refining/Extraction

1. The Water Cycle and Oil Refining/Extraction Tiffany Blanton, Husna Hadi, Zack Haiman, Sean Wayland source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/annia316/754581568/

2. The Water Cycle • The continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. • As water goes through the cycle, it changes state from liquid to gas. (sometimes solid) • The sun fuels the energy needed to make this process happen. • Steps include : Evaporation is the process in which water changes state from a liquid to water vapor due to the sun's heat. This causes the water vapor to rise upwards.  • Condensation is when water vapor collects together and turns into a liquid. • Water becomes too dense for "the sky to hold it" and it drops. (Rain) • Precipitation (when water vapor falls towards Earth).  • Infiltration is when some of the water from precipitation is collected underground • Run Off is when water from precipitation forms rivers and streams and go towards a body of water on the earth's surface • Collection when water collects in a body of water on the surface of the Earth.

3. Oil Extraction and Refining • Oil is found beneath Earth's rocky surface so costly procedures are required to get the oil out of the ground and into to your car/machine/and various other requirements for oil. •  The most common way to extract oil from below Earth's surface is oil drilling or an oil well. The whole process can cost millions of dollars. • Crude oil drilled straight from the ground is almost useless because it has so many different types of hydrocarbons that messes everything up. • Crude oil must go through a refining process.  • One of the ways to do so, is to heat crude oil up, let it vaporize, and then condense the vapor.

4. Relationship Between Water and Oil • Several unfortunate events would occcur if oil leaked into the water. • Under normal circumstances, oil and water do not normally mix together and only come together through drastic events such as an oil spill. • Oil, which less dense than water, floats above the surface acts like a lid on a jar and prevents evaporation. • Oil kills plants, and plant roots prevent erosion. Without plants, rivers would collapse in and run-off won't occur. •  Oil kills the life living in aquatic ecosystems, and some of those ecosystems have animals that clean the water. Without clean water, plants preventing erosion would die. • As Oil production increases, the production of saline water increases. The oil companies take water and make it salty. When they have no use for that salty water, it is dumped and wasted, leaving less water for the cycle.  An oil spill

5. The Impact of Humans On Water   and Oil • The growing human population is affecting the water cycle in a negative way. Worldwide people are in need of clean non-potable water, but the technique to purify water is extremely costly.  • Humans have used up a large amount of the Earth's water. Many Individuals have polluted the water in some way or another. This dirty water evaporates, and will rain down essentially as acid rain. This is bad, because it effects the wildlife and the organisms who drink it. (Including us)  • The growing human population is affecting the oil refining and extracting in a negative way, because more people require more oil needs. We have to extract more oil out of the ground to power our appliances and machinery. If humans didn't do this, the oil would never leave it's home in the Earth's surface.  • The main object that humans use oil for is cars. Automobiles pollute the air around them by emitting carbon (which contributes to global warming.) • When people are driving oil tankers (ships filled with oil) to their destination, there are numerous chances of an oil spill. This oil is poured out into the water, causing the ocean to be deadly and poisonous to the animals. Since oil is less dense than water, it floats on the surface creating a thin covering over the H2O. This covering, when left to the weather, results in the lightest oils evaporating while the heavier ones stay behind. Whatever is left behind is hopefully cleaned up by humans. • Because of the demanding need of oil in our society, we have to drill in risky places. Offshore drilling kills large amounts of animals, and in the process it endangers many species.

6. Human Impact Example • On March 24th, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spilled. • It spilled because the crew failed to do their jobs efficiently. Five mistakes were made. • Aproximately 11 million gallons of oil spilled into the ocean • Affected over 1100 miles of non-continuous coast line •  Took around two years to clean up. • The estimated initial death toll of the spill included 250,000 seabirds, 2800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales, billions of samon and herring eggs, and other intertidal plants and animals. • Some injured species are still recovering

7. How We Can Fix This • The only actual solution to oil pollution is to giving up oil. • There are only protocols for cleaning/containing it and preventing spills. • When an oil spill occurs on the ocean, floating barriers are placed to contain the oil before it spreads. Vehicles/devices called skimmers collect the oil and chemicals are released to break down the oil and protect wildlife. The remaining oil is burned away while it still floats. • Oil facilities and carriers are also being fitted with new technology to prevent spills.

8. Bibliography • Freudenrich, Craig. "How Oil Refining Works." How Stuff Works. 23 Feb. 2009 <http://science.howstuffworks.com/oil-refining.htm>. • "How are oil spills cleaned up?" Ask Yahoo! 23 Feb. 2009 http://ask.yahoo.com/20021218.html. • "Hydrologic Cycle." Hydrologic Cycle. 2004. 24 Feb. 2009 <http://www.ngdir.ir/SiteLinks/Kids/html/water_en_co_Hydrologic%20Cycle.html.htm>.j • "Oil Spills | Emergency Management | US EPA." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 23 Feb. 2009 http://www.epa.gov/oilspill/. • "Oil Spills." Oil Spills. Ed. Novi Meadows Elementary. 2002. 24 Feb. 2009 <http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm>.  • "Teachers' Domain: Oil Spill: Exxon Valdez, 1989." Teachers' Domain: Home. Ed. Teachers' Domain. 2002-2009. 24 Feb. 2009 <http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.exxon/> . • The Ohio State University. "What Goes Around Comes Around WATER CYCLE." What Goes Around Comes Around WATER CYCLE. July 2007. 24 Feb. 2009 <http://msteacher.org/epubs/science/science13/actinvestigating.aspx>. • University of Georgia. "Human activities in arid urban environments can affect rainfall and water cycle."Human activities in arid urban environments can affect rainfall and water cycle. June 2006. 25 Feb. 2009 <http://www.biology-online.org/articles/human-activities-arid-urban-environments.html> . • Vanden Berg, Michael Vanden Berg. "Water-Related Issues Affecting Conventional Oil and Gas Recovery and Potential Oil Shale Development in." Water-Related Issues Affecting Conventional Oil and Gas Recovery and Potential Oil Shale Development in. 1 Oct. 2008. 25 Feb. 2009 <http://www.geology.utah.gov/emp/UBwater_study/pdf/projectsum.pdf>.