Alberta Energy Regulator / Alberta Geological Survey:

Coal Production

In 2017, the U.S. produced over 774 million short tons of coal¹.  Coal in the U.S. is produced in three broad regions: Appalachian (Alabama, Eastern Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia), Interior (Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Western Kentucky), and Western (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming).

Biomining is mineral processing with microbes.

Biomining is the process of using microorganisms (microbes) to extract metals of economic interest from rock ores or mine waste. Biomining techniques may also be used to clean up sites that have been polluted with metals.

Pyrite and pyrrhotite are minerals known as iron sulfides. When iron sulfides are exposed to water and oxygen, a series of chemical reactions breaks down the iron sulfides and forms new minerals called sulfates. These sulfates take up more space than the original iron sulfides. As they grow, the new sulfate minerals push against the surrounding rock, causing it to swell and crack. This causes damage in two main ways:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

"LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth. These light pulses—combined with other data recorded by the airborne system— generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape of the Earth and its surface characteristics.

Tar sands (also called oil sands) are a mixture of sand, clay, water, and bitumen.^[1] Bitumen is a thick, sticky, black oil that can form naturally in a variety of ways, usually when lighter oil is degraded by bacteria.^[2] Bitumen has long been used in waterproofing materials for buildings, and is most familiar today as the binding agent in road asphalt.

Geoscience is the study of the Earth - its oceans, atmosphere, rivers and lakes, ice sheets and glaciers, soils, its complex surface, rocky interior, and metallic core. This includes many aspects of how living things, including humans, interact with the Earth. Geoscience has many tools and practices of its own but is intimately linked with the biological, chemical, and physical sciences.

The terms El Niño and La Niña refer to periodic changes in Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures^[1] that have impacts on weather all over the globe. In the Pacific Ocean near the equator, temperatures in the surface ocean are normally very warm in the western Pacific and cool in the eastern Pacific^[2]. This helps to generate heavy rains over southeastern Asia and northern Australia and keeps parts of Pacific coastal South America relatively dry^[2].

Renewable natural gas (RNG), also known as biomethane, is natural gas produced by the decomposition of organic matter under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions.¹ The gas is captured and then purified to remove components such as water, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide.

Roughly 60 percent of global groundwater use is for irrigation; most of the rest is used in households and industry.¹ Groundwater uses vary significantly by country, and partly depend on climate. In some countries with abundant rainfall, such as Indonesia and Thailand, irrigation needs are very low, so household water supply is the main use for groundwater.