Hobbies And Interests
Coal
Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the United States. Over a quarter of all known coal deposits in the world are located in the United States. Coal was formed by the remains of trees, ferns and other plants that existed on the earth some 300 to 400 million years ago. There are four main types of coal: lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous and anthracite. The properties and scarcity of these coal types vary depending on the plants and animals that form them, their age and the pressures to which they have been subjected. Anthracite, for instance, is the hardest and most energy efficient coal-type, but it is also the scarcest.
Oil
In its natural form, crude oil is a yellow to black sticky liquid found in underground reservoirs. It was formed by the dead remains of animals and plants found in oceans during the Carboniferous to Permian eras, which span from 380 to 245 million years ago. These remains were then covered by strata of sand and silt which provided the required weight to transform the organic material into oil. That is why oil prospectors usually have to dig through hundreds of feet of rocks and sand to reach fossil fuel deposits.
Natural Gas
Natural gas is made from the same components as oil. It was formed from oil which was pushed to deeper, hotter regions. This increased the pressure acting on the oil and generated natural gas. The main component of natural gas is methane, the same gas cows and humans emit when passing gas or burping, which makes it a somewhat renewable fuel if it could be harvested efficiently. According to Dairy Management Inc., a research company for the dairy industry, methane from cows accounts for up to two percent of the greenhouse gases emitted in the United States.
Paraffin
Paraffin is one of the many derivatives obtained from natural gas and petroleum. It has been used as a fuel for candles for thousands of years. The term describes a wide variety of hydrocarbons that have a ratio of twice plus two the number of hydrogen to carbon atoms.