Encyclopedia of Global Resources part 153 provides a wide variety of perspectives on both traditional and more recent views of Earth's resources. It serves as a bridge connecting the domains of resource exploitation, environmentalism, geology, and biology, and it explains their interrelationships in terms that students and other nonspecialists can understand. The articles in this set are extremely diverse, with articles covering soil, fisheries, forests, aluminum, the Industrial Revolution, the . Department of the Interior, the hydrologic cycle, glass, and placer mineral deposits. . | 1426 Glossary Global Resources isms to remove toxins from bodies of water or act as pesticides. Bitumen A generic term for a variety of solid or semisolid hydrocarbons tar asphalt and petroleum are classified as bitumens. Black lung disease A pneumoconiosis or disease of the respiratory system brought on by long-term inhalation of coal dust. Brine Water with a higher content of dissolved salts than is normally found in seawater. Carbonate mineral A mineral compound such as calcite or aragonite whose fundamental structure includes the GO3-2 anion. Cation An atom group of atoms or molecule that has lost electrons to become a positively charged ion. See also Anion. Ceramics Hard brittle materials created by firing baking nonmetallic minerals such as silicates and clays at high temperatures. Chemical weathering The chemical decomposition of solid rock by processes that change its original materials into new forms that are chemically stable at or near the Earth s surface. See also Mechanical weathering Weathering. Clay A term with three meanings a particle size less than 2 microns a mineral type kaolin smectite illite and a fine-grained soil or soft rock that is puttylike when damp. Cleavage The tendency for minerals to break in smooth flat planes along zones of weaker bonds in their cr ystal structure planar structure in a rock that imparts a preferred direction of fracturing. Climate A region s characteristic meteorological conditions particularly temperature and precipitation averaged over a significant period of time. See also Weather. Coal Dark brown to black carbonaceous rock formed by heat and compression from the accumulation of plant material in swampy environments readily combustible it is used as a fuel. Coal gasification Conversion of coal to a gaseous product by one of several available technologies. Compost The relatively stable humus material that is produced from a composting process in which bacteria in soil mixed with garbage and degradable trash break
