Carbon Cycles and Coal Formations.

1. Carbon Cycles and Coal Formations. This is a picture of a carbon cycle. This is a picture of a coal formation. By: Jack Hampton, Tyler Berkemeier, Corey Hunt, Ryan Conley, & Adolfo Segura Alfonso

2. Concept • There are four major reservoirs of carbon which are interlinked through exchange. These are: the atmosphere, the terrestrial biosphere (freshwater and natural organic materials such as carbon soil), the ocean, and the sediment. • Coal is mostly formed from accumulated dead land based plants (Mainly trees). Coal forms near the ocean in shallow water. Due to increasingly changing climates. It is said that their debris accumulate in sedimentary basins where they get covered by large amounts of mud and sand. Ryan

3. What they have in common. The textural changes of coal char upon gasification with either oxygen or carbon dioxide are compared. The comparison is carried out on char samples prepared by gasification with both reactants under conditions satisfying a tentative criterion for kinetic similarity. Accordingly, reaction temperatures and partial pressures of either oxygen or carbon dioxide were selected so as to satisfy the equality of Thiele moduli. Char samples were characterized by porosimetric analysis in order to shed light on pore activation and textural changes induced by the two reactions. Differences in reaction mechanisms associated with the two gasification processes are indirectly assessed. It is inferred that the pathway micropore chemisorption-spillover-desorption at reactive sites plays a much larger role for O2 than for CO2 gasification, providing a key for the differences in the observed gasification patterns. Tyler

4. Detailed Explanation. Carbon exists in matter such as Coal deposits, and carbonate rocks such as limestone and coral. Carbon enters the world through auto troughs. like plants and algae, they use energy from light to convert carbon dioxide into organic matter. Carbon returns by respiration, burning, and decay. Corey

5. Additional Content. • Coal is known as a fossil fuel because it forms from dead vegetation from over 400 million years ago. it’s also known as buried sunshine because the plants that died captured the lights energy from the sun. There are four main methods for coal extraction. Bell pit, open cast, drift, and deep mines. The name of the bell pit comes from the shape of the excavation. It has a narrow shaft that leads to a chamber where the seam of the coal is. Coal from there was transported back up by a basket. For an open cast excavation, the top soil. The sub soil is striped then stored. Once the coal is mined, the patch of ground has its top soil and sub soil replaced. Drifts inclined roadways used to find shallow coal. Coal occurs at much greater depths at the center of a syncline. Therefore, it is more economic to sink a shaft for the extraction of coal. Corey

6. Human Impact. • humans impact the carbon cycle when they burn fossil fuels in the presence of oxygen, this releases carbon dioxide and water molecules into the atmosphere. This causes global warming. • Mining coal has a big impact on the surrounding environment. Water is polluted and coal dust builds up in the air which is spread by winds. Methane, a gas formed in the mining process is released into the atmosphere. Which is 18% of the global warming effect caused by humans. Jack

7. Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/CarbonCycle.html http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/6.html http://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/modules/carbon1.html http://library.thinkquest.org/1122why.htm Alfonso