The Earth and its resources

This course is designed to make first-year students aware of the issues surrounding the use, exploitation and management of the Earth's natural resources.

By way of introduction, an overview will be given of the different types of resource (energy, mineral, water) and the major economic and environmental issues involved.

Different types of resources will then be presented in three stages:

- The notion of mineral resources will be explored in greater depth by presenting the itinerary of chemical elements, from their creation in the Universe to their storage in the minerals that make up rocks, and their use in the technologies employed in everyday life. This aspect will introduce basic notions of solid state chemistry and mineralogy, illustrated by mineralogy tutorials and practical exercises.

- The problems and functioning of geological reservoirs trapping natural resources will be addressed, focusing on conventional energy resources (hydrocarbons) and resources of the future (underground storage of resources, geothermal energy).

- Finally, the major challenges facing water resources worldwide will be explored in greater depth. The global water cycle on Earth will be presented, and the essential concepts needed to understand today's major issues will be identified (definitions of an aquifer and a hydrosystem and the main types encountered, chemical interactions between water and rocks and illustration of processes centered on the chemistry of mineral and thermal waters).

Hourly volumes:

CM:18

TD :12

TP:6

The primary aim of this course is to raise students' awareness of the issues involved in managing the Earth's resources. It aims to show how the fields of geosciences, water sciences and chemistry have a strong role to play as disciplines that can respond to these major challenges in the decades to come.

To better understand these issues, students will need to acquire a basic knowledge of the geological environments containing these resources: from the solid medium containing the chemical elements to the geological massif containing the fluid resources.

Open to students preparing for the TEE degree, but also to students from the Chemistry degree, this course is designed, among other things, to show students the important role played by chemistry and the Earth and Water sciences in the field of natural resources.

None.

Continuous control

• Synthetic description of the concepts covered in CM :

-CM1 and CM2: Introduction: what is a resource (natural, renewable, fossil). What are the major issues and problems associated with the use, exploitation and management of natural resources?

-CM3: Chemical elements: origins and distribution on Earth

-CM4, CM5: Minerals, entities that store mineral resources: definitions, structure, genesis. Examples of simple minerals and regional resources (galena, halite, etc.).

-CM6: Conference on an example of issues associated with a strategic resource (rare earths, hydrogen, etc.).

-CM7, CM8: Geological reservoirs: objects that store fluid resources. Conventional reservoirs to illustrate conventional (hydrocarbons) and unconventional resources. Geothermal energy and storage reservoirs (heat, gas, air) will be presented as solutions for the future using the "sustainable" potential of geological reservoirs.

-CM9: Water resources and the Earth's water cycle

-CM10: Global water resource issues. Definition of a hydrosystem and major types of aquifers.

CM11: Water quality issues: water chemistry and examples of fluid-rock interactions.

CM12 : Conclusion in the form of an integrative conference covering the concepts covered in the EU, which can provide broader reflection on political, economic and environmental aspects, etc...

• Summary description of TD sessions and number of hours associated with each session

-TD1: Elements of mineralogy and crystallography, as an introduction to the 2 practical exercises.

-TD2: composition of mineral/thermal waters

-TD3: rock texture, notions of porosity and hydraulic conductivity.

-TD4: Integrative TD on an object involving a hydrosystem and different types of associated resources (drinking water, hot water, minerals, gas (He), energy (geothermal)). Example: the Thuès hydrothermal system in the Pyrenees.

• Summary description of practical sessions and number of hours for each session

-TP1, TP2: practical work on mineralogy: basic elements of crystallography, illustrated by observation of natural crystallized solids (minerals). Work on a few minerals with clearly visible and educational characteristics (sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, silica) and on atomic structures. Link between atomic structures and properties on some very simple minerals.