How are fossil fuels (coal, petroleum and natural gas) thought to have formed? Please be specific about each type of fossil fuel.
What will be an ideal response?
Fossil fuels were formed from the remains of organisms and are a longer term sink that involves hundreds of millions of years. The carbon atoms in fossil fuels at one time were part of the active carbon cycle but were removed from the active cycle when the organisms accumulated without decomposing. The organisms that formed petroleum and natural gas are though to be the remains of marine organisms that got covered by sediments. Coal was formed from the remains of plants that were buried by sediments. Once the organisms were buried their decomposition would be slowed and heat from the earth and pressure from the sediments helped to transform the remains of living things into fossil fuels.
You might also like to view...
Complete the concept map by selecting the best response for the question numbers listed.Complete the concept map by selecting the best response for question number 3.
A. Seafloor spreading B. Pangaea C. Continental drift
Near a high-pressure weather system (also called an anticyclone), clouds are unlikely to form. Why is this?
A) Air flows downward and outward from a high. B) Air flows upward and into the high. C) Highs do not form in moist air. D) The Coriolis force turns the air, dispersing condensed air so clouds cannot form.
As starlight enters the atmosphere, it often passes through regions of differing air density causing the star to appear to "twinkle", a condition known as ____
A) iridescence B) scintillation C) dispersion D) twilight
What are the criteria pollutants and the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, and how are the standards used?
What will be an ideal response?