Natural resources

**Copper Head** · 03-28-2014, 07:50 PM

Once when I was having a scientific conversation about water . My SCI buddy simply said “the water we have now is the only water the planet earth ever had” Realizing the water we drink is the same water of the Dinosaur or the amoeba for that matter .

I like to put a question out there .I am wondering ALL the metals we have on the earth , is it also all we have . Like it’s not being mysteriously made under the earth in a renewing fashion .
If so recycling is Key for sure .

**freonjoe** · 03-28-2014, 08:12 PM

Copper Head, I read somewhere that the earth gains about 75,000 tons a year just from meteorites and space dust.

**jord0690** · 03-28-2014, 08:29 PM

I was also about to say we probably gain alot of metals from outer space.

**Jillyenator** · 03-28-2014, 08:33 PM

Right, comets, meteorites, and whatever we can eventually mine from our moon, the moons of Mars, and the Asteroid Belt.

We put a lot of metal debris into space, so we've lost those things, unless some entrepreneur comes up with a way to scavenge space junk.

**Mick** · 03-28-2014, 08:35 PM

We also gain water from outer space. Pieces of comets are vaporized and fall to earth routinely.

**Mick** · 03-28-2014, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by Jillyenator

...We put a lot of metal debris into space, so we've lost those things, unless some entrepreneur comes up with a way to scavenge space junk.

Someone will. Think of the potential value out there right now and its growing all the time.

**Jillyenator** · 03-28-2014, 08:39 PM

I wonder if we will be able to mine our capped 'sanitary' landfills someday. I'd be worried about the mercury and other hazards in there. We need to ensure that we redirect all the metals out of landfills first. We are the unsung HEROES.

**Copper Head** · 03-29-2014, 03:12 AM

I wonder if mars has silver or gold OR maybe some thing completely more precious and useful then any thing on earth .
The mars moons are small . Some astronomers feel no life on mars due to the small moons . See our moon has a strong gravitational pull causing a stabilizing force on the earth.
If we had No moon the earth would be wigging as it rotates the sun causing adverse weather with destruction

The moon has such a MAJOR IMPORTANT role with the earth , Mining the Moon is a NO-GO IMO you could say the moon is our hart
the earths gravitational pull keeps the moon in place But the moon is drifting away & someday will be gone .

**OMC** · 03-29-2014, 11:11 PM

Yes mars is made of the exact same material as earth. It was formed in the same manner as all inner rocky plants. That's why the outer planets are gas giants. When the sun ignited it created a massive shock wave pushing most lighter material farther away.
Anyway all minerals metals even water are therefore found on Mars as well. Even hydrocarbons and amino acids are found throughout.

**Copper Head** · 03-30-2014, 10:34 AM

Wikipedia,
How deposits are made

A strong tenet of basic geology is that ore deposits are produced with the help of large amounts of heat
heat can come from molten rock moving under the ground and from crater impacts. Liquid rock under the ground is called magma. When magma sits in underground chambers, slowly cooling over thousands of years, heavier elements sink. These elements, including copper, chromium, iron, and nickel become concentrated at the bottom.[3] When the mass of magma has cooled down and has mostly frozen or crystallized into a solid, a small amount of liquid remains. This liquid bears important substances such as lead, silver, tin, bismuth, antimony.[4] When magma is hot, many elements are free to move. As cooling proceeds, the elements bind with each other to form chemical compounds or minerals. Because some elements do not fit easily into minerals, they exist freely after nearly all the other elements have formed minerals. The remaining elements are called incompatible elements.[5] Some of them are quite useful to humans: niobium, a metal used in producing superconductors and specialty steels, lanthanum and neodymium, europium for television monitors and energy-efficient LED light bulbs [6] Sometimes minerals are so hot in the magma chamber that they are in the form of a gas. Others are mixed with water and sulfur. The gases and mineral-rich solutions eventually work their way into cracks and become valuable minerals veins. Ore minerals, including the incompatible elements, remain dissolved in the hot solution, then crystallize out when the solution cools. Deposits created by means of these hot solutions are called hydrothermal deposits. Some of the world's most significant deposits of gold, silver, lead, mercury, zinc, and tungsten started out this way.[7][8][9] Nearly all the mines in the northern Black Hills of South Dakota came to be because of hot water desposits of valuable minerals.[10] Cracks often form when a mass of magma cools because magma contracts when it cools. Cracks occur both in the frozen magma mass and in the surrounding rocks, so ore is deposited in any kind of the rock that happens to be nearby, but the ore minerals first had to be concentrated by way of a hot, molten mass of magma.[11]

Since I am no expert , when I read this ,I have a gut feeling & that our resources could be forming some place underground slowly .
But I feel what we take , is from a massive stockpile that was created from natural events so cataclysmic ,
that as long as life NOW is on planet earth,
a new massive creation can't occur now with out the destruction of life .

But non the less we take more then is replaced by nature the ore is not infinite
therefor recicling is so very important.