RESOURCES OF THE WORLD OCEAN

The ocean is a huge pantry of natural resources, which in their potential are quite comparable to the resources of the earth's land.

This is, first of all, sea water itself, the reserves of which are truly colossal and amount to 1370 million km 3, or 96.5% of the total volume of the hydrosphere. In addition, sea water is a kind of "living ore" containing 75 chemical elements. Even the ancient Egyptians and Chinese learned how to extract salt from it, which is now obtained in large quantities. Salt mines on the Chinese coast have existed for more than 5 thousand years. On the 8,000 km coastline, they occupy over 400,000 hectares, and the annual salt production reaches 20 million tons.

Sea water is also an important source of magnesium, bromine, iodine and other chemical elements.

It is also the mineral resources of the ocean floor. Among the resources of the continental shelf, oil and natural gas are of the greatest importance; by most estimates, they account for at least 1/3 of the world's reserves. Solid minerals of the shelf - primary and alluvial - are mined with the help of inclined mines and dredges (of course, except for such a truly "gold mine" as the treasures of sunken ships, which are increasingly becoming the prey of modern "knights of profit"). And the main wealth of the deep-sea bed of the Ocean is iron-manganese nodules. These concretions (a mineral formation of a rounded shape and brown color) are found in all oceans, forming a real "pavement" at the bottom. Their total reserves are estimated at 2-3 trillion. tons, and available for extraction - 250-300 billion tons. The largest areas of nodules occupy the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Currently, the possibilities of their industrial development are being studied.

The total power of the tides on our planet is estimated by scientists from 1 to 6 billion kW, and even the first of these figures far exceeds the energy of all the rivers of the globe. It has been established that there are opportunities for the construction of large tidal power plants in 25-30 places. Russia, France, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Argentina, USA have the largest tidal energy resources. They have coastal areas where the height of the tide reaches 10-15 m or more.

Finally, these are the biological resources of the World Ocean - animals (fish, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans) and plants that live in its waters. The biomass of the Ocean has 140 thousand species, and its total volume is estimated at 35 billion tons. But its main part is accounted for by phytoplankton and zoobenthos, while nekton (fish, mammals, squid, shrimp, etc.) is only a little over 1 billion tons

In the oceans, as well as on land, there are more and less productive water areas. On this basis, they are divided into very highly productive, medium productive, unproductive and the most unproductive. Among the most productive areas of the World Ocean, which V. I. Vernadsky called "coagulations of life", primarily include the Norwegian, Northern, Barents, Okhotsk, Sea of ​​Japan located in more northern latitudes, as well as the open northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

However, most of the commercial fish and animals in the oceans also need to be protected.

Tasks and tests on the topic "Resources of the oceans"

• World Ocean - General characteristics of the nature of the Earth Grade 7

  Lessons: 5 Assignments: 9 Quizzes: 1

• Oceans. Generalization of knowledge - Oceans Grade 7

  Lessons: 1 Assignments: 9 Tests: 1

• The relief of the bottom of the oceans - Lithosphere - the stone shell of the Earth, class 5

  Lessons: 5 Assignments: 8 Quizzes: 1

• Indian Ocean - Oceans Grade 7

  Lessons: 4 Assignments: 10 Tests: 1

• Atlantic Ocean - Oceans Grade 7

  Lessons: 4 Assignments: 9 Tests: 1

Leading ideas: the geographical environment is a necessary condition for the life of society, the development and distribution of the population and the economy, while the influence of the resource factor on the level of economic development of the country has recently been decreasing, but the importance of the rational use of natural resources and the environmental factor is increasing.

Basic concepts: geographic (environment) environment, ore and non-metallic minerals, ore belts, pools of minerals; structure of the world land fund, southern and northern forest belts, forest cover; hydropower potential; shelf, alternative energy sources; resource availability, natural resource potential (NRP), territorial combination of natural resources (RTSR), areas of new development, secondary resources; environmental pollution, environmental policy.

Skills: be able to characterize the natural resources of the country (region) according to the plan; use various methods of economic evaluation of natural resources; characterize the natural prerequisites for the development of industry and agriculture of the country (region) according to the plan; give a brief description of the location of the main types of natural resources, single out the countries "leaders" and "outsiders" in terms of availability of one or another type of natural resources; give examples of countries that do not have rich natural resources, but have reached a high level of economic development and vice versa; give examples of rational and irrational use of resources.

In our time, "the era of global problems", the World Ocean plays an increasingly important role in the life of mankind. Being a huge pantry of mineral, energy, plant and animal wealth, which - with their rational consumption and artificial reproduction - can be considered practically inexhaustible, the Ocean is able to solve one of the most pressing problems: the need to provide a rapidly growing population with food and raw materials for a developing industry, danger of an energy crisis, lack of fresh water.

The main resource of the World Ocean is sea water. It contains 75 chemical elements, among which are such important ones as uranium, potassium, bromine, magnesium. And although the main product of sea water is still table salt - 33% of world production, magnesium and bromine are already mined, methods for obtaining a number of metals have long been patented, among them copper and silver, which are necessary for industry, the reserves of which are steadily depleted, when, as in oceanic their waters contain up to half a billion tons. In connection with the development of nuclear energy, there are good prospects for the extraction of uranium and deuterium from the waters of the World Ocean, especially since the reserves of uranium ores on earth are decreasing, and in the Ocean there are 10 billion tons of it, deuterium is practically inexhaustible - for every 5000 atoms of ordinary hydrogen there is one heavy atom. In addition to the isolation of chemical elements, sea water can be used to obtain fresh water necessary for humans. Many commercial desalination methods are now available: chemical reactions are used to remove impurities from water; salt water is passed through special filters; finally, the usual boiling is performed. But desalination is not the only way to obtain potable water. There are bottom sources that are increasingly being found on the continental shelf, that is, in areas of the continental shelf adjacent to the shores of land and having the same geological structure as it. One of these sources, located off the coast of France - in Normandy, gives such an amount of water that it is called an underground river.

The mineral resources of the World Ocean are represented not only by sea water, but also by what is "under water". The bowels of the ocean, its bottom are rich in mineral deposits. On the continental shelf there are coastal placer deposits - gold, platinum; there are also precious stones - rubies, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds. For example, near Namibia, diamond gravel has been mined underwater since 1962. On the shelf and partly on the continental slope of the Ocean, there are large deposits of phosphorites that can be used as fertilizers, and the reserves will last for the next few hundred years. The most interesting type of mineral raw material of the World Ocean is the famous ferromanganese nodules, which cover vast underwater plains. Concretions are a kind of "cocktail" of metals: they include copper, cobalt, nickel, titanium, vanadium, but, of course, most of all iron and manganese. Their locations are well known, but the results of industrial development are still very modest. But the exploration and production of oceanic oil and gas on the coastal shelf is in full swing, the share of offshore production is approaching 1/3 of the world production of these energy carriers. On an especially large scale, deposits are being developed in the Persian, Venezuelan, Gulf of Mexico, and in the North Sea; oil platforms stretched off the coast of California, Indonesia, in the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas. The Gulf of Mexico is also famous for the sulfur deposit discovered during oil exploration, which is melted from the bottom with the help of superheated water. Another, as yet untouched pantry of the ocean are deep crevices, where a new bottom is formed. So, for example, hot (more than 60 degrees) and heavy brines of the Red Sea depression contain huge reserves of silver, tin, copper, iron and other metals. The extraction of materials in shallow water is becoming more and more important. Around Japan, for example, underwater iron-bearing sands are sucked out through pipes, the country extracts about 20% of coal from sea mines - an artificial island is built over rock deposits and a shaft is drilled to open coal seams.

Many natural processes occurring in the World Ocean - movement, temperature regime of waters - are inexhaustible energy resources. For example, the total tidal power of the Ocean is estimated at 1 to 6 billion kWh. This property of ebb and flow was used in France already in the Middle Ages: in the XII century, mills were built, the wheels of which were set in motion by a tidal wave. Today in France there are modern power plants that use the same principle of operation: the rotation of the turbines at high tide occurs in one direction, and at low tide - in the other.

The main wealth of the World Ocean is its biological resources (fish, zoo - and phytoplankton and others). The biomass of the Ocean has 150 thousand species of animals and 10 thousand algae, and its total volume is estimated at 35 billion tons, which may well be enough to feed 30 billion! human. Catching 85-90 million tons of fish annually, it accounts for 85% of the used marine products, shellfish, algae, humanity provides about 20% of its needs for animal proteins. The living world of the Ocean is a huge food resource that can be inexhaustible if used properly and carefully. The maximum fish catch should not exceed 150-180 million tons per year: it is very dangerous to exceed this limit, as irreparable losses will occur. Many varieties of fish, whales, and pinnipeds have almost disappeared from ocean waters due to immoderate hunting, and it is not known whether their population will ever recover. But the population of the Earth is growing at a rapid pace, increasingly in need of marine products. There are several ways to increase its productivity. The first is to remove from the ocean not only fish, but also zooplankton, part of which - Antarctic krill - has already been eaten. It is possible, without any damage to the Ocean, to catch it in much larger quantities than all the fish caught at the present time. The second way is to use the biological resources of the open ocean. The biological productivity of the Ocean is especially great in the area of ​​upwelling of deep waters. One of such upwellings Upwelling is the rise of water from the depth of a reservoir to the surface. It is caused by steadily blowing winds that drive surface waters towards the open sea, and in return, the waters of the underlying layers rise to the surface., located off the coast of Peru, provides 15% of the world's fish production, although its area is no more than two hundredths of a percent of the entire surface of the World ocean. Finally, the third way is the cultural breeding of living organisms, mainly in coastal zones. All these three methods have been successfully tested in many countries of the world, but locally, therefore, the fish catch, which is detrimental in terms of volume, continues. At the end of the 20th century, the Norwegian, Bering, Okhotsk, and Sea of ​​Japan were considered the most productive water areas.

In recent years, the cultivation of certain species of organisms on artificially created marine plantations has become increasingly widespread in the world. These fisheries are called mariculture. The development of mariculture takes place in Japan (oysters-pearl oysters), China (oysters-pearl oysters), USA (oysters and mussels), France (oysters), Australia (oysters), the Netherlands (oysters, mussels), the Mediterranean countries of Europe (mussels). In Russia, in the seas of the Far East, they grow seaweed (kelp), sea scallops.

The ocean, being a pantry of the most diverse resources, is also a free and convenient road that connects distant continents and islands. Maritime transport provides almost 80% of transportation between countries, serving the growing global production and exchange.

Tidal power plants help solve the problem of the energy crisis on the sea and ocean coasts. Mills also work with the help of surfs. There are projects that will not require the construction of dams, those terrible blood clots on the rivers, to accumulate water - including drinking water and the need for bypass channels will no longer threaten - the glaciers of the Northern Ocean can water the deserts.

Based on the generalization of the material, it can be concluded that the World Ocean is the future of mankind. Numerous organisms live in its waters, many of which are a valuable bioresource of the planet, and in the thickness of the earth's crust covered with the Ocean - most of all the mineral resources of the Earth. Despite the huge prospects for using the depths of the world ocean, as well as its energy from tides, waves, etc., humanity at this stage of its technical development has focused mainly on oil and gas production in easily accessible near-continental areas and active (up to the threat of extermination) catching the biomass of the seas. and oceans of the earth.

Deep-water basins and deep-sea trenches have the minimum biomass. Due to the difficult water exchange, stagnant areas arise here, and nutrients are contained in minimal quantities.

From the equatorial zone to the polar zone, the species diversity of life decreases by 20 - 40 times, but the total biomass increases by about 50 times. More cold-water organisms are more prolific, fatter. Two or three species account for 80 - 90% of the plankton biomass.

The tropical parts of the World Ocean are unproductive, although the species diversity in plankton and benthos is very high. On a planetary scale, the tropical zone of the World Ocean is most likely a museum, and not a feeding sector.

The meridional symmetry with respect to the plane passing through the middle of the oceans is manifested in the fact that the central zones of the oceans are occupied by a special pelagic biocenosis; to the west and east towards the coast are neritic zones of thickening of life. Here, the biomass of plankton is hundreds, and benthos is thousands of times greater than in the central zone. Meridional symmetry is broken by the action of currents and "upwelling".

The potential of the world's oceans

The oceans are the most extensive biotope on the planet. However, in terms of species diversity, it is significantly inferior to land: only 180 thousand animal species and about 20 thousand plant species. It should be remembered that out of 66 classes of free-living organisms, only four classes of vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds, etc.) and four classes of arthropods (primary tracheal, arachnids, centipedes, and insects) developed outside the sea.

The total biomass of organisms in the World Ocean reaches 36 billion tons, and the primary productivity (mainly due to unicellular algae) is hundreds of billions of tons of organic matter per year.

Food shortage: food makes us turn to the oceans. In the last 20 years, the fishing fleet has increased significantly and the means of fishing have improved. Catch gains reached 1.5 million tons per year. In 2009, the catch exceeded 70 million tons. Extracted (in million tons): marine fish 53.37, anadromous fish 3.1, freshwater fish 8.79, molluscs 3.22, crustaceans 1.68, other animals 0.12, plants 0.92.

In 2008, 13 million tons of anchovy were caught. However, in subsequent years, anchovy catches decreased to 3-4 million tons per year. The world catch in 2010 already amounted to 59.3 million tons, including 52.3 million tons of fish. Of the total production in 1975, it was caught (in million tons): out of 30.4, 25.8, 3.1. The main part of the production of 2010 - 36.5 million tons was caught from the northern seas. The catch in the Atlantic increased sharply, Japanese tuna fish appeared here. It's time to regulate the scale of fishing. The first step has already been taken - a two-hundred-mile territorial zone has been introduced.

It is believed that the increased power of technical means of fishing threatens the biological resources of the oceans. Indeed, bottom trawls spoil fish pastures. Coastal areas are also more intensively developed, accounting for 90 percent of the catch. However, the concern that the limit of the natural productivity of the World Ocean has been reached is groundless. Since the second half of the 20th century, at least 21 million tons of fish and other products have been harvested annually, which was then considered the biological limit. However, judging by the calculations, up to 100 million tons can be extracted from the oceans.

Nevertheless, it should be remembered that by 2030, even with the development of pelagic zones, the problem of the supply of marine products will not be solved. In addition, some pelagic fish (notothenia, whiting, blue whiting, grenadier, argentina, hake, zuban, icefish, sablefish) can already be included in the Red Book. Apparently, it is necessary to reorient in the field of nutrition, to more widely introduce krill biomass into products, the reserves of which are huge in Antarctic waters. There is experience of this kind: shrimp oil, Ocean paste, Coral cheese with a significant addition of krill are on sale. And, of course, we need to move more actively to the "sedentary" production of fish products, from fishing to ocean farming. In Japan, fish and shellfish have long been grown on marine farms (over 500,000 tons per year), and in the United States, 350,000 tons of shellfish per year. In Russia, a planned economy is carried out on marine farms in Primorye, the Baltic, Black and Azov Seas. Experiments are being carried out in the Dalnie Zelentsy bay on the Barents Sea.

Inland seas can be especially highly productive. So, in Russia, the White Sea is intended for the regulated cultivation of fish by nature itself. Here, the experience of factory breeding of salmon and pink salmon, valuable migratory fish, was set. The possibilities just aren't exhausted.

ESSAY

RESOURCES OF THE WORLD OCEAN

performed :

student of school number 34.

Kostroma, 1998

I. The World Ocean is a pantry of biological, chemical, fuel and energy resources.

1. Ocean and man

II. Resources of the World Ocean:

1. Biological resources:

a) development of nekton, benthos, zoobenthos, phytobenthos, zooplankton, phytoplankton of the World Ocean.

b) consideration of the biological productivity of each ocean:

the Atlantic Ocean;

Pacific Ocean;

Indian Ocean;

the Arctic Ocean;

Southern Ocean.

2. Chemical resources:

a) the main types of chemical resources of the oceans:

Salt

Calcium

3. Desalination of the oceans:

a) fresh water shortage, its causes;

b) ways to solve the problem;

c) ways to provide fresh water:

Desalination of ocean and sea waters:

· distillation;

· distillation and energy;

major producers of fresh water

Icebergs as a source of fresh water

4. Fuel resources:

a) oil and gas fields:

Oil and gas bearing sedimentary basins

Major oil and gas fields

b) coal, its deposits

5. Solid minerals from the ocean floor:

a) classification of solid minerals

b) alluvial minerals

c) indigenous minerals

6. Energy resources:

a) use of tidal energy

b) use of wave energy

c) use of thermal energy

Sh. Conclusion.

Chemical resources.

The World Ocean is a huge natural reservoir filled with water, which is a complex solution of various chemical elements and compounds. Some of them are extracted from water and used in human production activities and, being components of the salt composition of ocean and sea waters, can be considered as chemical resources. Of the 160 known chemical elements, 70 have been found in ocean and sea waters. The concentration of only a few of them exceeds 1 g/L.

These include: magnesium chloride, sodium chloride, calcium sulfate. Only 16 elements are found in the ocean in amounts of more than 1 mg/l, the content of the rest is measured in hundredths and thousandths of a milligram per liter of water. Because of their negligible concentrations, they are called trace elements of the chemical composition of the waters of the oceans. At very low concentrations of substances and elements in 1 liter of ocean water, their content reaches very impressive sizes in relatively large volumes of water,

There are 35 million tons of solids dissolved in every cubic kilometer of sea water. Among them are table salt, magnesium, sulfur, bromine, aluminum, copper, uranium, silver, gold, etc.

Considering the enormous volume of the waters of the World Ocean, the total amount of elements and their compounds dissolved in it is estimated at colossal values. Their total weight is 50´1015. Most (99.6%) of the salt mass of the ocean is formed by compounds of sodium, magnesium and calcium. The share of all other components of the solution is only 0.4%.

Currently, only those chemical resources of the World Ocean are used, the extraction of which from ocean waters is more economically profitable than obtaining them from analogues on land. The principle of profitability underlies marine chemical production, the main types of which include the production of salt, magnesium, calcium and bromine from sea water.

The most important place among the substances extracted from sea water belongs to ordinary table salt NaCl, which makes up 86% of all salts soluble in sea water. In many parts of the world, salt is mined by evaporating water when heated by the sun, sometimes refined and sometimes not, for later use. Extraction of table salt from sea water reaches 6-7 million tons per year, which is equal to 1/3 of its world production. Industrial extraction of table salt from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and its seas is carried out in England, Italy, Spain, France, Argentina and other countries. Salt from the waters of the Pacific Ocean is received by the United States in the San Francisco Bay (approximately 1.2 million tons per year). In Central and South America, sea water is the main source of table salt in Chile and Peru. In Asia, sea edible salt is mined in almost all coastal countries. For example, in Japan, 50% of the demand for table salt is provided by marine salt mines.

Table salt is used mainly in the food industry, where high quality salt containing at least 36% NaCl is used. At its lower concentrations, the salt is used for industrial purposes to produce soda, sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid, and other products. Low-grade salt is used in refrigeration units, and also goes to various household needs.

A large amount of magnesium is dissolved in the waters of the oceans. Although its concentration in sea water is relatively low (0.13%), it far exceeds the content of other metals except sodium. "Marine" magnesium is found mainly in the form of chloride and, to a lesser extent, sulfate soluble compounds.

Magnesium is extracted by separation from sodium, potassium and calcium, oxidizing to insoluble magnesium oxide, which is subsequently subjected to electrochemical treatment.

The first ton of marine magnesium was obtained in 1916 in England. Since then, its production has grown steadily. Currently, the oceans provide over 40% of the world's magnesium production. In addition to the UK in this metal, extracting it from sea water, a similar production is developed in the USA (on the Pacific coast in California (it provides 80% of consumption)), in France, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Tunisia, Japan, Germany and some other countries. There is information about the extraction of magnesium from the brines of the Dead Sea, which was carried out as early as 1924 in Palestine. Later, the production of magnesium from sea water was started in Israel (the chemical resources of the Indian Ocean are still rather poorly developed).

Today, magnesium is used for the manufacture of various light alloys and refractory materials, cement, as well as in many other sectors of the economy.

The concentration of potassium in ocean and sea waters is very low. In addition, it is in them in the form of double salts formed with sodium and magnesium, so the extraction of potassium from sea water is a chemically and technologically difficult task. Industrial production of "marine" potassium is based on the treatment of sea water with specially selected chemicals and strong acids.

Potassium began to be extracted from sea water during the First World War, when its main deposits on land, in Strasbourg and Alsace, which accounted for about 97% of world production, were captured by Germany. At this time, "sea" potassium began to be obtained in Japan and China. Soon after the First World War, other countries began to mine it. Today, potassium is mined in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and its seas on the coast of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain. Potassium salt from the waters of the Pacific Ocean is extracted in Japan, which receives from this source no more than 10 thousand tons of potassium per year. China produces potassium from sea water.

Potassium salts are used as fertilizers in agriculture and as valuable chemical raw materials in industry.

Although the concentration of bromine in sea water is negligible (0.065%), it was the first substance that began to be extracted from sea water, since it is almost impossible to extract it from land minerals, where it is found in negligible quantities. Therefore, the world production of bromine (about 100 tons per year) is mainly based on its extraction from sea water. The production of "marine" bromine is carried out in the USA, in the state of California (on the Pacific coast). Together with magnesium, potassium and table salt, bromine is mined in the waters of the Atlantic and the seas of the Atlantic Ocean (England, Italy, Spain, France, Argentina, etc.). Currently, bromine is obtained in India from sea water.

Demand for bromine is largely driven by the use of tetraethyl lead as a gasoline additive, which is declining in production because the compound is a hazardous environmental pollutant.

In addition to these basic substances that the ocean gives to man, microelements dissolved in its waters are of great interest for production. These include, in particular, lithium, boron, and sulfur extracted from sea water in small amounts, as well as gold and uranium, which are promising for technological and environmental reasons.

A brief review of the modern use of the chemical wealth of the oceans and seas shows that compounds and metals extracted from salt waters are already making a significant contribution to world production. Marine chemistry today provides 6-7% of the income received from the development of the resources of the oceans.

Fresh water.

If the chemical elements dissolved in the waters of the oceans are of great value to humanity, then the solvent itself is no less valuable - water itself, which Academician A.E. Fersman figuratively called "the most important mineral of our Earth, which has no substitutes." Providing fresh water to agriculture, industry, household needs of the population is no less an important task than supplying production with fuel, raw materials, and energy.

It is known that a person cannot live without fresh water, his needs for fresh water are growing rapidly and its shortage is more and more acutely felt. The rapid growth of the population, the increase in the area of ​​irrigated agriculture, and the industrial consumption of fresh water have turned the problem of water scarcity from local to global. An important reason for the shortage of fresh water lies in the uneven water supply of land. Atmospheric precipitation is unevenly distributed, river runoff resources are unevenly distributed. For example, in our country, 80% of water resources are concentrated in Siberia and the Far East in sparsely populated areas. Such large agglomerations as the Ruhr or the megalopolis of Boston, New York, Finland, Washington, with tens of millions of inhabitants, require huge water resources that local sources do not have. They try to solve problems in several interrelated areas:

· rationalize water use in order to reduce water losses to a minimum and transfer part of the water from areas with excessive moisture to areas where there is a shortage of moisture;

· cardinal and effective measures to prevent pollution of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and other water bodies and create large reserves of fresh water;

· expand the use of new sources of fresh water.

To date, these are groundwater available for use, desalination of ocean and sea waters, and obtaining fresh water from icebergs.

One of the most effective and promising ways to provide fresh water is the desalination of the salty waters of the World Ocean, all the more so since large areas of arid and low-watered territories adjoin its shores or are located close to them. Thus, ocean and sea waters serve as raw materials for industrial use. Their huge reserves are practically inexhaustible, but at the current level of technological development, they cannot be exploited profitably everywhere due to the content of dissolved substances in them.

Currently, there are about 30 ways of desalination of sea water. In particular, fresh water is obtained by evaporation or distillation, freezing, using ionic processes, extraction, etc. All methods of converting salt water into fresh water require large amounts of energy. For example, desalination by distillation consumes 13-14 kW/h per 1 ton of product. In general, electricity accounts for about half of all desalination costs, the other half goes to repairs and depreciation of equipment. Thus, the cost of desalinated water depends mainly on the cost of electricity.

However, where there is not enough fresh water for the life support of people and there are conditions for the construction of desalination plants, the cost factor recedes into the background. In some areas, desalination, despite its high cost, is more environmentally friendly than bringing water from afar.

The use of atomic energy is very promising for water desalination. In this case, a nuclear power plant (NPP) is "paired" usually with a distillation desalination plant, which it feeds with energy.

Salt water desalination is developing quite intensively. As a result, every two or three years the total productivity of the installations doubles.

Industrial desalination of ocean and sea waters in the Atlantic countries is carried out in the Canary Islands, Tunisia, England, the island of Aruba in the Caribbean, Venezuela, Cuba, the USA, etc. In Ukraine, desalination plants are used in the northwestern part of the Black Sea region and in the Azov region . Desalination plants also operate in some areas of the Pacific coast - in California, for example, such an installation produces 18.9 thousand cubic meters per day. water for technical purposes. Relatively small distillers are installed in Latin American countries. High-performance desalination plants with an output of 1-3 million cubic meters. water per day is projected in Japan. Large-scale desalination of salt water in the Indian Ocean is underway. It is practiced mainly in the Indian Ocean countries of the Middle East, where fresh water is very scarce and therefore its prices are high. Relatively recently in Kuwait, for example, a ton of oil was much cheaper than a ton of water brought from Iraq. However, economic indicators play a secondary role here, since fresh water is necessary for the life support of people. An important incentive to increase the number and capacity of desalination plants was the increase in oil production and the resulting development of industry and population growth in the desert and arid regions of countries rich in "black gold". Kuwait is one of the world's largest producers of desalinated water, where desalination plants provide fresh water to the entire state. Saudi Arabia has powerful distillers. Large volumes of fresh water are obtained in Iraq, Iran, and Qatar. Desalination of sea water has been established in Israel. Small-capacity desalination plants operate in India (in the state of Gujarat, a solar desalination plant with a capacity of 5,000 liters of water per day is operating, which supplies the local population with fresh water).

Enormous resources of clean and fresh water (about 2 thousand km3) are contained in icebergs, 93% of which are provided by the continental glaciation of Antarctica. The important supply of ice mountains that annually break away from glaciers floating in the ocean is approximately equal to the amount of water contained in the channels of all the world's rivers and 4 to 5 times more than what all the world's desalination plants can provide. The cost of fresh water contained in icebergs that form in just 1 year is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars.

However, when using the water resources of icebergs, great difficulties arise at the stages of development and implementation of methods for delivering them to dry coastal areas. A certain mass of icebergs must be transported at a certain speed, a certain number of tugs. In addition, during transportation, the iceberg must be protected from heat by plastic material, which allows losing no more than 1/5 of its volume during the journey.

The United States, Canada, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Australia and other countries show interest in the Antarctic water supply source.

The problem of desalination of ocean and sea waters is dealt with by the UN bodies, the International Atomic Energy Agency, national organizations of more than 15 countries of the world. The efforts of scientists and engineers are aimed at developing effective measures for the integrated use of the waters of the World Ocean, in which the extraction of useful components from them is combined with the production of clean water. This way allows the most efficient development of the water resources of the ocean.

Gone are the days when fresh water was regarded as a free gift of nature; growing scarcity, increasing costs for the maintenance and development of water management, for the protection of water bodies make water not only a gift of nature, but also in many respects a product of human labor, raw material in further production processes and a finished product in the social sphere.

Fuel and energy resources of the World Ocean

Minerals are the result of the geological development of our planet, therefore, deposits of oil, natural gas and coal, the most important types of modern fuel, have formed in the bowels of the bottom of the sea areas of the World Ocean. Proceeding from this, underwater deposits of combustible minerals can be considered as fuel resources of the World Ocean.

Although these riches are of organic origin, they are not the same in physical state (liquid, gaseous and solid), which predetermines the difference in the conditions of their accumulation and, consequently, spatial distribution, production features, and this, in turn, affects the economic indicators of development. It is advisable to first characterize the offshore oil and gas fields, which have many similarities and represent a large part of the fuel resources of the world's oceans.

One of the most acute and urgent problems at present is the provision of fuel and energy resources for the ever-increasing needs of many countries of the world. By the middle of the XX century. Their traditional types - coal and wood fuel - gave way to oil, and then to gas, which became not only the main sources of energy, but also the most important raw material for the chemical industry.

Not all regions of the globe are equally provided with these minerals. Most countries meet their needs by importing oil. Even the United States, one of the largest oil-producing states (about a third of its world production), covers more than 40% of its deficit with imported oil.

Japan produces oil in negligible quantities, and buys almost 17% of it entering the world market. It extracts oil on the basis of equity participation in the water areas of some Middle Eastern states, but is especially active in offshore exploration in Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand with the prospect of developing its own oil and gas production here.

Western European states import up to 96% of the oil they consume, and their demand for it continues to grow.

Oil and gas consumption is largely determined by market conditions, so it varies markedly from year to year, sometimes for several years. The lack of own oil and gas and the desire to reduce dependence on their imports are stimulating many countries to expand the search for new oil and gas fields. The development and generalization of the results of exploration work have shown that the bottom of the World Ocean can serve as the main source of production of several tens of billions of tons of oil and trillions of cubic meters of gas.

According to modern concepts, the necessary geological condition for the creation of oil and gas in the bowels of the Earth is the existence of large sedimentary strata in the areas of formation and accumulation of oil and gas. They form large oil and gas bearing sedimentary basins, which are integral autonomous systems where the processes of oil and gas formation and oil and gas accumulation take place. Offshore oil and gas fields are located within these basins, most of the area of ​​which is located in the underwater depths of the oceans and seas. Planetary combinations of sedimentary basins are the main belts of oil and gas formation and oil and gas accumulation of the Earth (GOP). Geologists have established that there is a complex of natural prerequisites in the GPN that are favorable for the development of large-scale processes of oil and gas formation and oil and gas accumulation.

It is no coincidence, therefore, that out of 284 large accumulations of hydrocarbons known on Earth, 212 with reserves of more than 70 million tons were found within the GPN, extending over continents, islands, oceans and seas. However, significant oil and gas deposits are unevenly distributed between individual belts, which is explained by differences in geological conditions in specific GOPs.

In total, about 400 oil and gas basins are known in the world. Of these, about half extend from the continents to the shelf, then to the continental slope, and less often to the abyssal depths. More than 900 oil and gas fields are known in the World Ocean. Of these, about 351 fields are covered by offshore oil development. It is more expedient to give a more or less detailed description of offshore oil development in the regional section.

At present, several major centers of underwater oil development have developed, which now determine the level of production in the World Ocean. Chief among them is the Persian Gulf. Together with the adjacent land of the Arabian Peninsula, the bay contains more than half of the world's oil reserves, 42 oil fields and only one gas field have been discovered here. New discoveries are expected in deeper deposits of the sedimentary sequence.

A large offshore field is Saffaniya-Khafji (Saudi Arabia), put into operation in 1957. The initial recoverable reserves of the field are estimated at 3.8 billion tons, 56 million tons of oil are produced per year. An even more powerful field is Lulu-Esfandiyar, with reserves of about 4.8 billion tons. It should also be noted such large deposits as Manifo, Fereydun-Marjan, Abu-Safa, and others.

The Persian Gulf fields are characterized by a very high well flow rate. If the average daily flow rate of one well in the USA is 2.5 tons, then in Saudi Arabia - 1590 tons, in Iraq - 1960 tons, in Iran - 2300 tons. This provides a large annual production with a small number of drilled wells and low cost of oil.

The second largest production area is the Gulf of Venezuela and the Maracaibo lagoon. The oil and gas fields of the lagoon represent an underwater continuation of the giant continental-marine field of the Bolivar Coast and, on the eastern shore of the lagoon, the Tip Hauna field. The lagoon resources were developed as an extension of the land resources; drilling operations gradually moved offshore into the sea. In 1924 the first well was drilled. The annual oil production of this region is more than 100 million tons.

In recent years, new deposits have been discovered, including those outside the lagoon, in La Vela Bay, etc. The development of offshore oil production in Venezuela is largely determined by economic and political factors. For the country, oil is the main export commodity.

One of the old and developed areas of offshore oil and gas production is the Gulf of Mexico. About 700 industrial accumulations have been discovered off the American coast of the Gulf, which is about 50% of all deposits known in the World Ocean. 32% of the world fleet of floating offshore installations is concentrated here, one third of all wells drilled in offshore fields.

The development of the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico was accompanied by the creation of a complex of related industries - special engineering, shipyards for the construction of floating and fixed drilling platforms, shipyards for the creation of an auxiliary fleet, a supply base and helipads, tanker berths and terminal facilities, oil refineries and gas treatment plants, coastal reception capacities and distributors at the mouths of offshore pipelines. Special mention should be made of the creation of an extensive network of underwater oil and gas pipelines. Houston, New Orleans, Houma and other cities became the centers of the offshore oil and gas industry on the coast.

The development of offshore oil and gas production in the United States contributed to the elimination of their dependence on any regional source, in particular on Middle Eastern oil. For this purpose, offshore oil production is being developed in the coast of California, the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas are being developed.

The Gulf of Guinea is rich in oil, the reserves of which are estimated at 1.4 billion tons, and the annual production is 50 million tons.

The discovery of a large North Sea oil and gas province with an area of ​​660 thousand square kilometers was sensational. Exploration work in the North Sea began in 1959. In 1965, commercial deposits of natural gas were discovered in the coastal waters of the Netherlands and off the east coast of Great Britain. By the end of the 60s. discovered industrial accumulations of oil in the central part of the North Sea (the Monrose oil fields in the British sector and the Ekofisk oil and gas field in the Norwegian sector). By 1986, more than 260 deposits had been discovered.

The availability of oil and gas resources in the countries of the North Sea turned out to be extremely unequal. Nothing has been discovered in the Belgian sector, very few deposits in the German sector. Gas reserves in Norway, which controls 27% of the North Sea shelf area, turned out to be higher than in the UK, which controls 46% of the shelf area, but the main oil fields are concentrated in the UK sector. Exploration work in the North Sea continues. Covering ever deeper waters, and new deposits are being discovered.

The development of the oil and gas resources of the North Sea is taking place at an accelerated pace on the basis of large capital investments. High oil prices contributed to the rapid development of the resources of the North Sea and even the decline in production in the richer profitable areas of the Persian Gulf. The North Sea came out on top in the production of hydrocarbons in the Atlantic Ocean. 40 oil and gas fields are exploited here. Including 22 off the coast of Great Britain, 9 - Norway, 8 - the Netherlands, 1 - Denmark.

The development of North Sea oil and gas led to shifts in the economy and foreign policy of some countries. In the UK, related industries quickly began to develop; there are more than 3 thousand companies associated with offshore and oil and gas operations. In Norway, there has been a spillover of capital from traditional industries - fishing and shipping - into the oil and gas industry. Norway has become a major exporter of natural gas, providing the country with a third of export earnings and 20% of all government revenue.

Of the other states exploiting the hydrocarbon resources of the North Sea, it should be noted the Netherlands, which produces and exports gas to European countries, and Denmark, which produces 2.0-2.9 million tons of oil. These countries control a small number of relatively small oil and gas fields.

Of the new areas of offshore oil production, the growing oil industry of Mexico should be especially noted. In 1963, drilling operations in the northern part of the Marine Golden Belt (Faja de Oro) in the Gulf of Mexico led to the discovery of the Isla de Lobos underwater oil field. By the beginning of the 1980s, more than 200 oil and gas fields had been discovered on the Mexican shelf (areas of the Golden Belt, the Gulf of Campeche), which give the country half of its oil production. In 1984, offshore production produced 90 million tons of oil. Particular attention is drawn to the Bay of Campeche, which is characterized by very high, up to 10 thousand cubic meters. per day, well flow rates.

Mexico became a major exporter of oil; in 1980, it exported more than 66 million tons, including 36.5 million tons to the United States. Foreign exchange earnings are used for the development of the chemical and gas processing industries, for the production of fertilizers needed by the most important sector of the country - agriculture.

West Africa is becoming one of the largest and most promising areas for oil production. The growth of production and its fluctuations in the countries of the region largely depend on the political situation, on foreign investment, and the availability of technology. In 1962, the first commercial oil inflows were obtained from the underwater extension of the Chenge-Ocean continental-marine field of Gabon, then new discoveries followed in the waters of Gabon, Nigeria, Benin (since 1968, Dahomey), Congo. In the 70s, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) joined the countries producing offshore oil, and in 1980 - Equatorial Guinea. By 1985, more than 160 oil and gas fields were discovered in the waters of West Africa. The most developed mining is in Nigeria (19.3 million tons in 1984), followed by Angola (8.8 million tons), Gabon (6.5 million tons), Congo (5.9 million tons) . The main part of the produced oil is exported and is used as an important source of foreign exchange earnings and government revenues. Oil production is dominated by foreign capital.

The offshore oil and gas industry of Latin American countries - Argentina, Brazil and others - is rapidly developing, striving to at least partially free itself from oil imports and strengthen the national economy.

The development of oil and gas resources of China's continental shelf is promising. In recent years, large-scale prospecting work has been carried out there, and the necessary infrastructure has been created.

Some experts, not without reason, suggest that by the end of the twentieth century. offshore fields off the coast of Indonesia and Indochina will be able to produce more oil than is now produced in the entire Western world. The shelf zones of Northern Australia, Cook Inlet (Alaska), the region of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are also very rich in hydrocarbons. The extraction of "marine" oil is carried out on the Caspian Sea (the coasts of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan (Bani Lam field)). The Galitsyno gas fields in the Black Sea between Odessa and Crimea fully meet the needs of the Crimean peninsula. Intensive gas exploration is being carried out in the Sea of ​​Azov.

Currently, the search for oil and gas is widely deployed in the World Ocean. Exploratory deep drilling is already being carried out on an area of ​​about 1 million square meters. kilometers, licenses were issued for prospecting for another 4 million square meters. kilometers of seabed. With the gradual depletion of oil and gas reserves in many traditional onshore fields, the role of the World Ocean as a source of replenishment of these scarce fuels is noticeably increasing.

It is important to highlight the underwater mining of hard coal.

For a long time, in many countries, coal has been used on a large scale as the most important type of solid fuel. And now in the fuel and energy balance it has one of the main places. It must be said that the joint level of extraction of this mineral is two orders of magnitude less than its reserves. This means that the world's coal resources make it possible to increase its production.

Hard coal occurs in bedrock, mostly covered with a sedimentary cover. Indigenous coal basins, located in the coastal zone, in many areas continue in the bowels of the shelf. The coal seams here are often thicker than on land. In some areas, for example, on the North Sea shelf, coal deposits have been discovered. Not associated with coastal. The extraction of coal from underwater basins is carried out by the mine method.

More than 100 underwater deposits are known in the coastal zone of the World Ocean and about 70 mines are operating. Approximately 2% of the world's coal production is extracted from the depths of the sea. The most significant offshore coal mining is carried out by Japan, which receives 30% of coal from underwater mines, and Great Britain, which produces 10% of coal offshore. Submarine basins off the coast of China, Canada, the USA, Australia, Ireland, Turkey and, to a lesser extent, Greece and France provide a significant amount of coal. Because onshore coal reserves are more substantial and more commercially available. Than the sea. Subsea deposits are developed mainly by countries with low coal supplies. In some countries, such as the UK, the development of underwater coal mining is to a certain extent associated with the depletion of reserves in traditional deposits on land.

In general, there is an upward trend in subsea hard coal mining.

Solid minerals from the bottom of the ocean.

So far, solid minerals extracted from the sea have played a much smaller role in the marine economy than oil and gas. However, here too there is a trend towards rapid development of production, stimulated by the depletion of similar reserves on land and their uneven distribution. In addition, the rapid development of technology has led to the creation of improved technical means capable of mining in coastal zones.

Deposits of solid minerals in the sea and ocean can be divided into primary, occurring at the place of their original occurrence, and loose, the concentrations of which are formed as a result of the removal of clastic material by rivers near the coastline on land and shallow water.

Indigenous, in turn, can be divided into buried, which are extracted from the depths of the bottom, and surface, located at the bottom in the form of nodules, silts, etc.

The highest value after oil and _____________________________

gas currently have placer solid minerals deposits of metal-bearing minerals, / \

diamonds, building materials and amber. indigenous alluvial For certain types of raw materials, marine rosses - / \

pi are dominant. In them buried surface

le of heavy minerals and metals, which are in demand in the world foreign market. The most significant of them are ilmenite, rutile, zircon, monazite, magnetite, cassiterite, tantalum-niobite, gold, platinum, diamonds and some others. The largest coastal-marine placers are known mainly in the tropical and subtropical zones of the World Ocean. At the same time placers of cassiterite, gold, platinum and diamonds are much rarer, they are ancient alluvial deposits submerged under the sea level and are located near the areas of their formation.

Such minerals of coastal-marine placer deposits as ilmenite, rutile, zircon and monazite are the most widespread, "classical" minerals of marine placers. These minerals have a high specific gravity, are resistant to weathering, and form industrial concentrations in many areas of the coasts of the World Ocean.

The leading place in the extraction of placer metal-bearing minerals is occupied by Australia, its eastern coast, where placers stretch for one and a half thousand kilometers. The sands of this band alone contain about 1 million tons of zircon and 30.0 thousand tons of monazite.

The main supplier of monazite to the world market is Brazil. The United States is also the leading producer of ilmenite, rutile and zircon concentrates (placers of these metals are almost ubiquitous on the shelf of North America - from California to Alaska in the west and from Florida to Rhode Island in the east). Rich ilmenite-zircon placers were found off the coast of New Zealand, in coastal placers in India (Kerala), Sri Lanka (Pulmoddai region). Less significant coastal-marine deposits of monazite, ilmenite and zircon were found on the Pacific coast of Asia, on the island of Taiwan, on the Liaodong Peninsula, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Argentina, Uruguay, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, the Falkend Islands, South Africa and in some other areas.

Much attention in the world is paid to the extraction of cassiterite concentrate - a source of tin. The world's richest coastal-marine and underwater alluvial placer deposits of tin-bearing ore - cassiterite are concentrated in the countries of Southeast Asia: Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Of considerable interest are cassiterite placers off the coast of Australia, near the Cornwall peninsula (Great Britain), in Brittany (France), on the northeastern coast of the island of Tasmania. Offshore deposits are becoming increasingly important due to the depletion of onshore reserves and because offshore deposits have turned out to be richer in metal than land deposits.

More or less significant and rich coastal-marine placers of magnetite (containing iron) and titanomagnetite sands are found on all continents. However, not all of them have commercial reserves.

The largest deposits of ferruginous sands are located in Canada. Japan has very significant reserves of these minerals. They are concentrated in the Gulf of Thailand, near the islands of Honshu, Kyushu and Hokkaido. Ferrous sands are also mined in New Zealand. The development of coastal-marine placers of magnetite is carried out in Indonesia and the Philippines. In Ukraine placer titanomagnetite deposits are exploited on the beaches of the Black Sea; in the Pacific Ocean - in the area of ​​Insurut Island. Promising deposits of tin-bearing sand have been discovered in the Vankova Bay of the Laptev Sea. Coastal magnetite and titanomagnetite placers are found on the coasts of Portugal, Norway (Lofopyanskie Islands), Denmark, Germany, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and other countries.

The sporadic minerals of coastal-marine placers are primarily gold, platinum, and diamonds. All of them usually do not form independent deposits and are found mainly in the form of impurities. In most cases, marine placers of gold are confined to the mouth areas of "gold-bearing" rivers.

Alluvial gold in coastal marine deposits was found on the western coasts of the United States and Canada, in Panama, Turkey, Egypt, and the countries of South-West Africa (the city of Nome). Significant concentrations of gold characterize the underwater sands of the Strait of Stephans, south of the Grand Peninsula. The industrial content of gold in samples taken from the bottom of the northern part of the Bering Sea has been established. Exploration of coastal and underwater gold-bearing sands is actively carried out in different parts of the ocean.

The largest underwater deposits of platinum are located in Goodnews Bay (Alaska). They are confined to the ancient channels of the Kuskokwim and Salmon rivers, flooded by the sea. This deposit provides 90% of the US needs for this metal.

The main deposits of coastal-marine diamondiferous sands are concentrated on the southwestern coast of Africa, where they are confined to deposits of terraces, beaches and shelves down to depths of 120 m. Luanda), on the coast of Sierra Leone. African coastal-marine placers are promising.

Amber, an ornamental item and a valuable raw material for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, is found on the shores of the Baltic, North and Barents Seas. On an industrial scale, amber is mined in Russia.

Among non-metallic raw materials in the shelf zone, glauconite, phosphorite, pyrite, dolomite, barite, building materials - gravel, sand, clay, shell rock are of interest. The resources of non-metallic raw materials, based on the level of modern and foreseeable needs, will last for thousands of years.

Many coastal countries are engaged in intensive extraction of building materials in the sea: the USA, Great Britain (English Channel), Iceland, Ukraine. In these countries, shell rock is mined, it is used as the main component in the production of building lime, cement, feed flour.

The rational use of marine building materials involves the creation of industrial complexes for the enrichment of sands by cleaning them from shells and other impurities and utilizing shells in various sectors of the economy. Shell rock is mined from the bottom of the Black, Azov, Barents and White Seas.

The data presented indicate that by now a coastal mining industry has been formed. Its development in recent years was associated, firstly, with the development of new technologies, secondly, the resulting product is of high purity, since foreign impurities are removed in the process of placer formation, withdrawal from land use of productive lands.

It is characteristic that the countries producing concentrates from mineral raw materials extracted from coastal-marine placers (except for the USA and Japan) do not use their products, but export them to other states. The bulk of these concentrates are supplied to the world market by Australia, India and Sri Lanka, to a lesser extent by New Zealand, South African countries and Brazil. On a large scale, this raw material is imported by Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, the USA, and Japan.

At present, the development of coastal-marine placers is expanding all over the world, and more and more new countries are beginning to develop these riches of the ocean.

In recent years, favorable prospects for the extraction of primary deposits of the marine subsoil by the mine-ore method have been identified. More than a hundred underwater mines and mines are known, laid from the coast of the continents, natural and artificial islands for the extraction of coal, iron ore, copper-nickel ores, tin, mercury, limestone and other minerals of the buried type.

In the coastal zone of the shelf there are underwater deposits of iron ore. It is mined with the help of inclined mines, leaving the coast into the bowels of the shelf. The most significant development of offshore deposits of iron ore is carried out in Canada, on the east coast of Newfoundland (the Wabana deposit). In addition, Canada mines iron ore in the Hudson Bay, Japan - on the island of Kyushu, Finland - at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. Iron ores are also obtained from underwater mines in France, Finland, and Sweden.

In small quantities, copper and nickel are mined from underwater mines (Canada - in the Hudson Bay). Tin is mined on the Cornwall peninsula (England). In Turkey, on the coast of the Aegean Sea, mercury ores are being developed. Sweden mines iron, copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver in the bowels of the Gulf of Bothnia.

Large salt sedimentary basins in the form of salt domes or stratal deposits are often found on the shelf, slope, foot of the continents and in deep-water basins (Gulfs of Mexico, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, northern part of the Caspian Sea, shelves and slopes of Africa, the Middle East, Europe). The minerals of these basins are represented by sodium, potassium and magnesite salts, gypsum. Calculation of these reserves is difficult: the volume of potassium salts alone is estimated in the range from hundreds of millions of tons to 2 billion tons. The main need for these minerals is met by deposits on land and extraction from sea water. Two salt domes are being exploited in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

More than 2 million tons of sulfur are extracted from underwater deposits. Exploited the largest accumulation of sulfur Grand Isle, located 10 miles from the coast of Louisiana. For the extraction of sulfur, a special island was built here (extraction is carried out by the frash method). Salt-dome structures with a possible commercial sulfur content have been found in the Persian Gulf, the Red and Caspian Seas.

Mention should also be made of other mineral resources, which occur mainly in the deep-sea regions of the World Ocean. Hot brines and silts rich in metals (iron, manganese, zinc, lead, copper, silver, gold) have been found in the deep waters of the Red Sea. The concentrations of these metals in hot brines exceed their content in sea water by 1 - 50,000 times.

More than 100 million square kilometers of the ocean floor are covered with deep-sea red clays with a layer up to 200 m thick. These clays (hydroxides of aluminosilicates and iron) are of interest to the aluminum industry (the content of aluminum oxide is 15-20%, iron oxide is 13%), they are also contain manganese, copper, nickel, vanadium, cobalt, lead and rare earths. The annual increase in clay is about 500 million tons. Glauconite sands (aluminosilicates of potassium and iron) are widespread mainly in the deep-water regions of the World Ocean. These sands are considered a potential raw material for the production of potash fertilizers.

Concretions are of particular interest in the world. Huge areas of the seabed are covered with ferromanganese, phosphorite and barite nodules. They are of purely marine origin, formed as a result of the deposition of water-soluble substances around a grain of sand or a small pebble, a shark's tooth, a fish bone or a mammal.

Phosphorite nodules contain an important and useful mineral - phosphorite, widely used as a fertilizer in agriculture. In addition to phosphorite nodules, phosphorites and phosphorus-containing rocks are found in phosphate sands, in bedded deposits of the ocean floor, both in shallow and deep water areas.

World potential reserves of phosphate raw materials in the sea are estimated at hundreds of billions of tons. The need for phosphorites is constantly increasing and is mainly satisfied by land deposits, but many countries do not have deposits on land and show great interest in marine ones (Japan, Australia, Peru, Chile, etc.). Commercial reserves of phosphorites have been found near the Californian and Mexican coasts, along the coastal zones of South Africa, Argentina, the east coast of the United States, in the shelf parts of the Pacific Ocean periphery (along the main arc of Japan), off the coast of New Zealand, in the Baltic Sea. Phosphorites are mined in the California region from depths of 80-330 m, where the concentration averages 75 kg/m3.

There are large reserves of phosphorites in the central parts of the oceans, in the Pacific Ocean, within the volcanic uplifts in the area of ​​the Marshall Islands, the system of uplifts of the Mid-Pacific Seamounts, and on the seamounts of the Indian Ocean. At present, marine mining of phosphorite nodules can be justified only in areas where there is an acute shortage of phosphate raw materials and where its import is difficult.

Another type of valuable minerals is barite nodules. They contain 75-77% barium sulfate, used in the chemical and food industries, as a weighting agent for oil drilling solutions. These concretions have been found on the shelf of Sri Lanka, on the Sin-Guri Bank in the Sea of ​​Japan, and in other regions of the ocean. In Alaska, in the Duncan Strait, at a depth of 30 m, the only barite vein deposit in the world is being developed.

Of particular interest in international economic relations is the extraction of polymetallic, or, as they are more commonly called, ferromanganese nodules (FMC). They include many metals: manganese, copper, cobalt, nickel, iron, magnesium, aluminum, molybdenum, vanadium, up to 30 elements in total, but iron and manganese predominate.

In 1958, it was proved that the extraction of FMC from the depths of the ocean is technically feasible and can be profitable. FMCs are found in a wide range of depths - from 100 to 7000 m, they are found within the shelf seas - the Baltic, Kara, Barents, etc. However, the most valuable and promising deposits are located on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where two large zones are distinguished: the northern one, extending from East Mariana Basin across the entire Pacific Ocean to the slopes of the Albatross Rise, and the southern one, gravitating towards the South Basin and bounded in the east by the rises of the Cook Islands, Tubuan and East Pacific. Significant reserves of FMN are found in the Indian Ocean, in the Atlantic Ocean (North American Basin, Blake Plateau). A high concentration of such useful minerals as manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper has been established in ferromanganese nodules near the Hawaiian Islands, Line Islands, Tuamotu, Cook, and others. It must be said that in polymetallic nodules there is 5 thousand times more cobalt than on land, 4 thousand times more manganese, and 1.5 thousand times more nickel. times, aluminum - 200 times, copper - 150 times, molybdenum - 60 times, lead - 50 times and iron - 4 times. Therefore, the extraction of FMC from the subsoil is very profitable.

Pilot development of FMN is currently underway: new deep-sea submersibles with video systems, drilling devices, and remote control are being created, which expand the possibilities for studying polymetallic nodules. Many experts predict a bright future for the extraction of ferromanganese nodules, they argue that their mass production will be 5-10 times cheaper than the "onshore" one, and thus will be the beginning of the end of the entire mining industry on land. However, many technical, operational, environmental and political challenges still stand in the way of nodule development.

Energetic resources.

If oil, gas and coal, extracted from the depths of the oceans, are mainly energy raw materials. Then many natural processes in the ocean serve as direct carriers of thermal and mechanical energy. The development of tidal energy has begun, an attempt has been made to use thermal energy, and projects have been developed for using the energy of waves, surf and currents.

The use of tidal energy.

Under the influence of the tide-forming Moon and Sun, tides are excited in the oceans and seas. They are manifested in periodic fluctuations in the water level and in its horizontal movement (tidal currents). In accordance with this, the energy of the tides is made up of the potential energy of water, and of the kinetic energy of moving water. When calculating the energy resources of the World Ocean for their use for specific purposes, for example, for the production of electricity, the entire energy of the tides is estimated at 1 billion kW, while the total energy of all the rivers of the globe is 850 million kW. The colossal energy capacities of the oceans and seas are of great natural value for man.

Since ancient times, people have sought to master the energy of the tides. Already in the Middle Ages, it began to be used for practical purposes. The first structures whose mechanisms were set in motion by tidal energy. There were mills and sawmills that appeared in the X-XI centuries. On the coasts of England and France. However, the rhythm of the work of the mills is quite intermittent - it was acceptable for primitive structures that performed simple, but useful functions for their time. For modern industrial production, however, it is hardly acceptable, so they tried to use the energy of the tides to obtain more convenient electrical energy. But for this it was necessary to create tidal power plants (PES) on the shores of the oceans and seas.

The creation of PES is fraught with great difficulties. First of all, they are associated with the nature of the tides, which cannot be influenced. Because they depend on astronomical causes. From the features of the outlines of the coast, relief, bottom, etc. (The tidal cycle is determined by the lunar day, while the energy supply regime is associated with the production activities and everyday life of people and depends on the solar day, which is 50 minutes shorter than the lunar one. Hence, the maximum and minimum of tidal energy occurs at different times, which is very inconvenient for its use). Despite these difficulties. People are persistently trying to master the energy of the sea tides. To date, about 300 different technical projects for the construction of TPPs have been proposed. Experts believe that the most rational cost-effective solution is the use of a rotary-blade (reversible) turbine in PES. An idea that was first proposed by Soviet scientists.

Such turbines - they are called submerged or capsule units - are capable of acting not only as turbines in both directions of flow. But also as pumps for pumping water into the pool. This allows you to adjust their operation depending on the time of day. The heights and phases of the tide, moving away from the lunar rhythm of the tides and approaching the periodicity of solar time, according to which people live and work. However, reversible turbines do not compensate for the reduction in tidal force. What causes a periodic change in the power of the PES and complicates its operation. Indeed, considerable difficulties will arise in the operation of the territorial energy system if it includes a power plant, the capacity of which changes 3-4 times within two weeks.

Soviet power engineers have shown that this difficulty can be overcome by combining the work of tidal and river power plants with reservoirs of many years of regulation. After all, the energy of rivers fluctuates seasonally and from year to year. With the paired operation of the TPP and HPP, the energy of the sea will come to the aid of the HPP in dry seasons and years, and the energy of the rivers will fill the day-to-day failures in the operation of the TPP.

Not in any region of the globe there are conditions for the construction of hydroelectric power plants with reservoirs of long-term regulation. Studies have shown that the transmission of tidal electricity from the coastal zone to the central parts of the continents will be justified for some areas of Western Europe, the USA, Canada, and South America. In these areas, TPPs can be combined with HPPs that already have large reservoirs. In such a complex engineering (capsule units) and natural-climatic (unified energy systems) approach lies the key to solving the problem of using tidal energy. At present, the practical development of tidal energy has begun, which was largely facilitated by the efforts of Soviet scientists, which made it possible to realize the idea of ​​converting tidal energy into electrical energy on an industrial scale.

The world's first industrial PES with a capacity of 240 thousand kW was built and put into operation in 1967 in France. It is located on the English Channel, in Brittany, at the mouth of the Rance River, where the tide reaches 13.5 m. The long-term operation of the firstborn of tidal energy has proved the reality of the structure. Revealed the advantages and disadvantages (in particular, relatively low power) of such stations. In this regard, in many countries, new projects of powerful and super-powerful industrial PES have been created and continue to be developed. According to experts, in 23 countries of the world there are suitable areas for their construction. However, despite many projects, industrial PPPs are not yet being built.

With all the advantages of PES (they do not require the creation of reservoirs and flooding of useful land areas, their operation does not pollute the environment, etc.), their share is practically imperceptible in the modern energy balance. However, progress in the development of tidal energy is already clearly visible and will become more significant in the future.

Use of wave energy.

The wind excites the wave movement of the surface of the oceans and seas. Waves and surf have a very large supply of energy. Each meter of a wave crest 3 m high carries 100 kW of energy, and each kilometer - 1 million kW. According to US researchers, the total power of the ocean waves is 90 billion kW.

Since ancient times, human engineering and technical thought has been attracted by the idea of ​​the practical use of such colossal reserves of ocean wave energy. However, this is a very difficult task, and on the scale of a large power industry, it is still far from being solved.

So far, some success has been achieved in the field of using the energy of sea waves for the production of electricity that feeds low-power installations. Wave power plants are used to power lighthouses, buoys, signal sea lights, stationary oceanographic instruments located far from the coast, etc. Compared to conventional electric accumulators, batteries and other power sources, they are cheaper, more reliable and require less maintenance. This use of wave energy is widely practiced in Japan, where more than 300 buoys, lighthouses and other equipment are powered by such installations. A wave power generator is successfully operated on a lightship in the port of Madras in India. Work on the creation and improvement of such energy devices is carried out in various countries. Promising development of wave energy is associated with the development of perfect and efficient high-power devices. In recent years, many different technical projects of them have appeared. So, in England, power engineers designed a unit that generates electricity using wave shocks. According to the designers, 10 of these units, installed at a depth of 10 meters off the western coast of Great Britain, will provide electricity to a city with a population of 300,000 people.

At the current level of scientific and technological development, and even more so in the future, due attention to the problem of mastering the energy of sea waves will undoubtedly make it an important component of the energy potential of maritime countries.

The use of thermal energy.

The waters of many regions of the World Ocean absorb a large amount of solar heat, most of which accumulates in the upper layers and only to a small extent spreads to the lower ones. Therefore, large differences in the temperature of surface and deep-lying waters are created. They are especially well expressed in tropical latitudes. In such a significant difference in temperature of colossal volumes of water, there are great energy possibilities. They are used in hydrothermal (morethermal) stations, in another way - PTEC - systems for converting the thermal energy of the ocean. The first such station was established in 1927 on the Meuse River in France. In the 1930s, they began to build a sea-thermal station on the northeast coast of Brazil, but after an accident, construction was stopped. A marine thermal station with a capacity of 14,000 kW was built on the Atlantic coast of Africa, near Abidjan (Ivory Coast), but due to technical problems, it is now out of operation. PTEO projects are being developed in the USA, where they are trying to create floating versions of such stations. The efforts of specialists are aimed not only at solving technical problems, but also at finding ways to reduce the cost of equipment for sea thermal stations in order to increase their efficiency. Electricity from offshore power plants must be competitive with electricity from other types of power plants. Operating PTES are located in Japan, Miami (USA) and on the island of Cuba.

The principle of operation of the PTEC and the first experiences of its implementation give reason to believe that it is economically most expedient to create them in a single energy-industrial complex. It may include: power generation, desalination of sea water, production of table salt, magnesium, gypsum and other chemicals, creation of mariculture. This is probably the main prospects for the development of marine thermal stations.

The range of possibilities for using the energy potential of the World Ocean is quite wide. However, it is very difficult to realize these possibilities.

Conclusion.

Today, the principle of stages applies to the use of the resources of the World Ocean. At the first stage of anthropogenic impact on the ocean environment (use of resources, pollution, etc.), imbalances in it are eliminated by the processes of its self-purification. This is a harmless stage. At the second stage, violations caused by production activities are eliminated by natural self-healing and targeted human activities that require certain material costs. The third stage provides for the restoration and maintenance of the normal state of the environment only by artificial means with the involvement of technical means. At this stage of the use of marine resources, significant capital investments are required. From this it is clear that in our time the economic development of the ocean is understood more broadly. It includes not only the use of its resources, but also concern for their protection and restoration. Not only the ocean should give people their wealth. But people should use them rationally and economically. All this is feasible if the rate of development of marine production takes into account the conservation and reproduction of the biological resources of the oceans and seas and the rational use of their mineral wealth. With this approach, the World Ocean will help humanity in solving food, water and energy problems.

Literature:

1.1 C. Drake "The ocean itself and for us"

1.2 S.B. Selevich "Ocean: resources and economy"

1.3 B.S. Login "Ocean to man"

1.4 B.S. Login "Oceans"

Theme "Resources of the World Ocean".

Purpose of this lesson

Based on this,

Lesson plan:

· Resource classification.

· Prospects for Oceanic Nature Management.

Resource classification. The resources of the World Ocean are complex. The natural resource potential of the ocean is enormous. The oceans contain large reserves of various resources. There are four main types among them:

Sea water. The reserves of sea water are enormous, its volume on Earth is 1338 million km3. It is a unique resource, and its use is multi-purpose. Sea water contains 75 chemical elements. Each cubic kilometer of sea water contains 37 million tons of minerals. First of all, it is table salt. They learned to extract it from sea water in ancient times (in China and Egypt). Now, about 1/3 of all table salt produced in the world (mainly in Japan and China) is extracted from sea water. In addition, sea water contains magnesium, bromine, iodine, sulfur, copper, uranium, silver and gold. In addition to the extraction of salts and chemicals, sea water is used in a desalinated form. Desalination of sea water has become especially important in conditions of fresh water shortage on Earth with an increase in water consumption. And, finally, sea water is a transport resource. Hundreds of thousands of sea routes are laid in the seas and oceans, and sea transport has the lowest cost among all modes of transport.

Mineral resources of the ocean floor.

Mineral resources of the ocean floor can be subdivided into:

Ø resources shelf ;

Ø deep sea resources lodge .

Among offshore resources oil and gas are released. Currently, more than 300 oil and gas bearing basins are known in the shelf zone. They contain about half of the world's reserves. Offshore oil and gas production is the most promising branch of the extractive industry. The main areas of oil and gas production are the Persian, Mexican, Guinean Gulf, Caribbean, North, Caspian and South China Seas. Basins are also being developed in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas.

In addition, ores of iron, copper, nickel, tin, and mercury are mined in the shelf zone. Coal is also mined on the shelf (Great Britain, Canada, Japan, China); sulfur (USA). Coastal-marine placers are of great importance. For example, amber - on the coast of the Baltic Sea, diamonds - off the coast of Namibia, gold - off the coast of the USA, zirconium - off the coast of Australia. Deep Sea Bed Resources are most widely represented by ferromanganese nodules. In addition to iron and manganese, they contain nickel, cobalt, copper, titanium, molybdenum. The nodules are most common in the Pacific Ocean. In the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, their area is much smaller. Mining technologies have already been developed, but it is not yet widely carried out.

Energetic resources. The potential of energy resources of the World Ocean is huge. Mainly tidal energy is used. Tidal power plants have been built in France, Russia, Great Britain, and the USA. The potential reserves of tidal energy are the largest in Russia on the coasts of the White, Barents and Okhotsk Seas. (Link to Interesting Facts page)

Technologies are being developed to use the energy of sea currents and waves.

biological resources.

The biological resources of the World Ocean are the most widely used. They are diverse in species composition (about 140 thousand species). These are various animals (fish, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans) and plants (primarily algae). More than 85% of ocean biomass used by humans is fish. More than 90% of all fish is harvested in the shelf zone, with the most productive being the temperate and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The largest catch comes from the Pacific Ocean (55%). From the seas - Norwegian, Bering, Okhotsk and Japanese. At present, the production of living organisms of the sea in some countries exceeds their natural reproduction, so the artificial breeding of fish, mollusks (oysters, mussels), crustaceans, and algae has become quite common. Such a trade is called mariculture. It is widely distributed in Japan, China, USA, the Netherlands, France.

An exercise: Which of the global problems of mankind, in your opinion, can be solved by rationally using the resources of the world's oceans? Records can be arranged in the form of a table:

Pollution of the World Ocean and depletion of its natural resource potential. Water pollution has become a major problem in the oceans. Oil pollution poses a particular threat. They are estimated at 3-5 million tons per year and are primarily associated with discharges into rivers and seas of various oily waste from the continents, ship discharges, tanker accidents and oil spills on the water surface, as well as partial loss of oil during loading of ships and offshore mining. In addition, the pollution of the World Ocean is associated with the burial of toxic and radioactive waste, testing of various types of weapons in the World Ocean and on islands. On the other hand, there is a depletion of certain types of resources of the World Ocean. First of all, it concerns biological resources. Already, many species of fish and marine animals have been almost completely exterminated. Some of them are included in the Red Book.

Prospects for oceanic nature management. Prospects for the development of the use of the resources of the World Ocean are diverse. The scarcity of many types of land resources can be replenished at the expense of ocean resources.

Rational oceanic nature management involves:

Ø reduction of waste discharge into rivers and seas;

Ø improvement of technologies for the extraction of mineral resources of the World Ocean;

Ø rational extraction of biological resources;

Ø development of mariculture;

Ø Wider use of the energy resources of the oceans.

Homework:

Answer the questions in writing:

1) Why is the shelf zone of particular interest from the point of view of the development of ocean resources?

2) What is the threat of ocean pollution? Can this problem be solved by a single state or a group of states? Justify the answer?

Creative task. Using the material of the topic, draw up a diagram of the concept of "world economy".

Dictionary:

Ocean bed - a very large negative landform of the same order as the continents.

Shelf - the continental shelf, the underwater margin of the mainland, adjacent to the continents of the land and differing in common geological structure with it.

mariculture – artificial breeding and cultivation of aquatic organisms: fish, mollusks (oysters, mussels), crustaceans, algae in sea waters.

Interesting Facts:

1. In Russia, the possibility of constructing the Mezenskaya (10-15 million kW) and Belomorskaya (14 million kW) TPPs on the White Sea, an even larger Penzhinskaya TPP (30-100 million kW) on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, in France, a TPP on the coast of the English Channel near the Cotentin Peninsula (50 million kW), in the UK - in the Bristol Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, in India - in the Gulf of Kutch of the Arabian Sea.

2. In Japan, a program is being implemented to expand marine farms and plantations, which plans to receive 8-9 million tons of "seafood" products and satisfy half of the population's total demand for fish and seafood. In the USA, India, the Philippines, shrimp, crabs, mussels are bred, in France - oysters. In tropical countries, it is planned to use coral islands to create whale dolphin farms.

Possible result of filling in the table: "The oceans and the solution of global problems"

Problem	The role of the oceans in solving the problem
food Energy Raw Transport recreational	Huge biomass - fish, molluscs, crustaceans, algae. Energy: tidal, kinetic waves, thermal. Oil and gas shelf; ores, gold, diamonds; salts of magnesium, bromine, iodine from sea water. New types of transport, cable communication lines. Development of recreation areas.

Literature:

1) Earth and Humanity: Global Problems // Series "Countries and Peoples". – M.: Thought, 1985.

2) Maksakovskiy. - Moscow, 2002. -CH III.

3) Rodionov's problems of mankind. - M., 1994

Purpose of this lesson- to continue the formation of ideas and knowledge about the most important global problems of mankind, to expand students' knowledge of the oceans.

Based on this, The objectives of the lesson (and, accordingly, the expected results) are as follows:

1. To study the significance and role of the World Ocean for mankind.

2. To form the ability to work with texts and tables: extract the main thing, determine the meaning, analyze; summarize the material and arrange it in a diagram.

When doing homework, to draw up the proposed scheme, it is necessary to use the structure of the marine economy, its components. When highlighting them, it is best to use the maps of the atlas, where offshore oil and gas production and fishing “compete”. As well as the map "Degradation of the global ecological system" of this electronic manual. An exemplary circuit diagram can be represented as follows.