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What you should know by the end of this lesson:
What you should know by the end of this lesson:
How shale gas formed in the first place
How we extract shale gas from the ground
How has Shale Gas formed?
How has Shale Gas formed?
Before we can learn about the extraction of Shale Gas we need to know how it got there in the first place
Digital Workbook Task and Paper Jotter Task:
Read the information below on the formation of shale and shale gas
Create a 4 step guide which details the 4 stages it takes for the formation of shale gas
Finish by writing a sentence that begins..."The top 3 shale gas reserve locations in the world are______"
Shale is the most common sedimentary rock, accounting for about 70% of the rock found in the Earth's crust. It is a fine-grained clastic sedimentary rock made of compacted mud consisting of clay and tiny particles of quartz, calcite, mica, pyrite, other minerals, and organic compounds. Shale occurs worldwide wherever water exists or once flowed (see map below for shale gas deposits).
Shale forms via compaction from particles in slow or quiet water, such as river deltas, lakes, swamps, or the ocean floor. Heavier particles sink and form sandstone and limestone, while clay and fine silt remain suspended in water. Over time, compressed sandstone and limestone become shale. Shale typically occurs in a broadsheet, several meters thick. Sometimes animal tracks, fossils, or even imprints of raindrops are preserved in shale layers. Shale formations have tiny pore spaces and these trap natural gas which creates Shale Gas
Where do we find Shale Gas?
Where do we find Shale Gas?
Extraction of Shale Gas
Extraction of Shale Gas
The History of Extraction
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Scottish chemist James “Paraffin” Young pioneered the extraction of oil from torbanite, a type of fine-grained black shale found near Bathgate in West Lothian, establishing the first commercial oil works anywhere in the world. Torbanite provided high yields of crude oil and once distilled products such as kerosene (paraffin) could be used for heating and lighting. The shale oil industry continued in Scotland until the 1960s.
Tar sands (also known as oil sands) are a combination of clay, sand, water, and bitumen, which once extracted can be refined into oil. These oil-rich deposits are found in extremely large quantities in Canada, Kazakhstan and Russia. In Canada the indigenous population had been using bitumen products for waterproofing wooden products such as canoes from prehistoric times, but the commercial exploitation of such deposits commenced at the start of the twentieth century. The Athabasca oil sands in Alberta contain the largest deposits of bitumen in the world.
Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)
Hydraulic Fracturing or more commonly known as "fracking" is a controversial method used today to extract natural gas from layers of shale rock. We will look at the controversy in the next lesson but first of all, you need to understand how the gas is extracted.
Digital Workbook Task and Paper Jotter Task:
Create your own copy of Diagram 1
Watch the video "what is Fracking?" and add annotations to your diagram for the main features of the process.
You may find it useful to also write a paragraph underneath to explain what is happening in your diagram
Diagram 1
Lesson Complete
Lesson Complete
Now return to your Teams assignment and complete the quiz to test how well you have understood this lesson
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