

It is the source of the chemicals used to make gasoline, lubricating oils, plastics and many other products. Petroleum is a fossil fuel mainly found beneath the Earth’s surface. Petroleum A thick flammable liquid mixture of hydrocarbons. Most natural gas starts out as 50 to 90 percent methane, along with small amounts of heavier hydrocarbons, such as propane and butane. Natural gas A mix of gases that developed underground, like crude oil (and often in association with crude oil) over, millions of years.

Those cracks are then held open by sand that had been added to the fracking fluid. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking The cracking open of undergound rocks by introducing liquid at high pressure, especially to extract natural gas. The fluids pumped back into the ground from fracking may cause earthquakes, and the chemicals in those liquids may be toxic.įollow Eureka! Lab on Twitter Power Words (for more about Power Words, click here)Ĭrude oil Petroleum in the form that it comes out of the ground.įossil fuels Any fuel - such as coal, petroleum (crude oil) or natural gas - that has developed in the Earth over millions of years from the decayed remains of bacteria, plant or animals. Any other liquids that come out, including the fluids pumped into the holes, tend to get injected back underground. The fluid shatters the rock, which frees the fossil fuels so that they can be pumped to the surface. Then, they pump in liquid at very high pressure. To get at this energy source, engineers drill deep roles into the rock. Over millions of years, natural gas or petroleum can build up between layers of shale rock. It is a technique used to get oil and natural gas from rock, usually from a type of rock called shale.

Fracking is the short word for hydraulic fracturing.
