What is fossil fuels?

In economic activity people usevarious substances, among which one of the first in importance are combustible minerals. For any state, this is a very important strategic raw material that has been extracted and used by mankind since ancient times. Which minerals are flammable? These include coal, gas, oil, peat and oil shale.

Coal

Coals are contemporariesgeological epochs of antiquity. In the geochronological scale, one of the periods is called coal. It is believed that at that time the planet was covered by a tropical forest, which consisted of huge horsetails and tree-like ferns. As a result, they formed coal fossil fuels.

In that era, the climate was humid and warm. Fallen trees gave way to new ones. Huge layers of wood were accumulated. In shallow water reservoirs and swamps, they turned into coal fossil fuels. It is believed that in this way no less than 30% of the coal on the planet was formed. Coal deposits are not uncommon. They can be found not only on the continents, but also on some islands. Even Antarctica is no exception. It is believed that combustible minerals lie beneath the kilometer ice beds.

Stone still knew distant ancestorsmodern people. There are different types of it - their formation conditions were different. The most qualitative of them is anthracite, then coking and brown coals go. The latter in the energy plan are the least valuable. Fossil fuels are used for smelting pig iron.

Hydrocarbon fossil fuels

These include oil and gas, which are formed innatural cavities of the interior. They accumulated organic matter, the remains of living organisms. For millions of years, almost without access to air, they have become a valuable raw material, which is called "black gold", as well as into natural gas. Deposits of combustible minerals of hydrocarbon type are on all continents. Oil has a complex chemical composition. Its production is accompanied by the release of natural gas, which, as a rule, lies above the oil-bearing horizon. Oil is used in a huge number of industries. In addition to the basis for the production of motor fuel, it is an important raw material for the chemical industry.

Many countries in the world have deposits"Black gold". However, the largest reserves are in the following countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia and the United States. The latter state has very rich explored deposits, but does not fully exploit them in order to save oil for the future. The extraction of "black gold" is carried out not only on the territory of the land, but also on the shelves of many seas with the help of drilling floating platforms. In Russia, one of the richest deposits is Samotlor. It is located in Western Siberia. In the Tyumen region are three largest gas fields: Urengoy, Bovanenkovo, Yamburg.

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