Coaching Centre
The Earth’s Resources review
A summary of the whole Earth's Resources chapter, key words, and a mixed test covering renewable and non-renewable resources, fossil fuels, uranium, mining, renewable energy, soil, living resources, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resource management and the water cycle.
Use this page to check the whole chapter. Read the summary, make sure you can explain every key word, then do the test without looking back.
Chapter summary
| Topic | What you need to know |
|---|---|
| 7A Renewable and non-renewable resources | Resources come from the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. Renewable ones are replaced within a lifetime; non-renewable ones are not. Renewable resources can still run out if overused. Reduce, reuse, recycle. |
| 7B Fossil fuels and power stations | Coal (from swamp plants), oil and gas (from plankton) formed over millions of years. Power station: boiler → steam → turbine → generator → transformer; chemical → heat → kinetic → electrical. CO₂ and the enhanced greenhouse effect. |
| 7C Uranium and nuclear energy | Australia has the most uranium. Fission: a neutron splits U-235, releasing heat and more neutrons; chain reaction kept steady by control rods. Low CO₂ but radioactive waste; banned in Australia. |
| 7D Minerals, ores and mining | Ores contain enough useful mineral to mine. Open-cut for shallow ore, underground for deep ore. Overburden, tailings, rehabilitation. Critical minerals such as lithium. Recycling metals. |
| 7E Renewable energy | Wind, solar, hydro, pumped hydro, tidal, wave, geothermal, biofuels. Advantages and disadvantages. Storage (batteries, pumped hydro) keeps the lights on when the Sun sets. |
| 7F Soil as a resource | Sand, silt, clay, humus, water, air and living things. Forms slowly by weathering. Soil profile (O, A, B, C horizons). Water-holding. Erosion, salinity, compaction and their management. |
| 7G Living resources and caring for Country | Resources from plants, animals, fungi and bacteria. Forests, fisheries, palm oil. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander management: harvesting rules, fish traps (Budj Bim, Brewarrina), cultural burning, rangers, Booderee. |
| 7H The water cycle | Evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, run-off, infiltration, groundwater; driven by the Sun. Residence times. Catchments, dams, recycling and desalination. |
| 7I Water in Australia | 97.5% of water is salty; most fresh water is ice or groundwater. Driest inhabited continent; El Niño (drier) and La Niña (wetter). Irrigation uses the most. Desalination, recycled water, the Murray–Darling Basin, saving water. |
Key words
aquifer · atmosphere · biofuel · biosphere · catchment · chain reaction · coal seam gas · condensation · control rod · critical mineral · cultural burning · desalination · El Niño · evaporation · fossil fuel · generator · geothermal · groundwater · humus · hydro-electricity · hydrosphere · infiltration · La Niña · lithosphere · mineral · non-renewable · nuclear fission · open-cut · ore · overburden · precipitation · rehabilitation · renewable · run-off · salinity · soil profile · sustainable · tailings · transformer · transpiration · turbine · uranium · water cycle
Test yourself
Which resource comes from the hydrosphere?
The hydrosphere is all the Earth's water.
In a coal-fired power station, the energy change in the generator is
The spinning turbine drives the generator.
If a reactor's control rods are pulled out too far, the chain reaction
Fewer neutrons are absorbed.
The soil that holds water best for most plants contains a lot of
Humus acts like a sponge.
Which is NOT a renewable energy source?
There is a fixed amount of uranium.
Cool, patchy cultural burns help to
They create a mosaic of burnt and unburnt land.
Plants releasing water vapour from their leaves is
Through the stomata.
The largest use of water in Australia is
Well over half of all water used.
Label the stages of coal formation.
Which sphere does it come from?
Coal, oil and gas are fuels. Splitting uranium atoms is called nuclear . Using a resource no faster than it is replaced is . Water vapour cooling into cloud droplets is . Turning seawater into fresh water is .
Australia is changing from electricity made mostly from coal to electricity made mostly from renewable sources. Discuss the reasons for this change and the challenges involved, using scientific ideas from this chapter.
Coal is a non-renewable fossil fuel that took millions of years to form, so it will eventually run out. Burning it in power stations releases large amounts of carbon dioxide, which adds to the enhanced greenhouse effect and climate change. Many of Australia's coal power stations are also old and closing, such as Liddell in 2023 and Eraring by 2029, while solar and wind are now the cheapest way to make new electricity and will never run out. There are challenges, though. Solar only works in daylight, and the wind does not always blow, but electricity must be supplied at exactly the moment it is used, including the evening peak just after sunset. To solve this, the grid needs storage, such as large batteries and pumped hydro like Snowy 2.0, which store spare midday solar energy for the evening, and wind and solar farms spread across different places, connected by new transmission lines. Building these takes land, and some communities worry about the effects on views, farmland and wildlife. The batteries and turbines also need mined critical minerals such as lithium, which must be mined responsibly and recycled. With the right mix of sources and storage, renewables can keep the lights on with far less CO₂.