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The riches of our land

On a geographical map, topographers apply special symbols and signs indicating what exactly is located in a particular place. For example, forests are indicated as trees or in the form of a green rectangle, seas - in the form of a blue rectangle, sandy terrain - in yellow, and so on.

The earth is rich in such minerals as oil, gas, coal, peat, black ore, non-ferrous ore, lime, clay, sand, granite, precious stones (ruby, diamond, sapphire, emerald), fresh water, mineral water and so on. Thanks to topographers, people find out in which area gas or oil is produced, and much more.

According to the designations of mineral resources on the map of Russia, it is rich in oil and gas (Tyumen, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Perm, Orenburg regions, the Republic of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and so on), coal (Pechora, Kuznetsk, South Yakutsk basins), oil shale (St. -Petersburg deposit), peat (Northern Urals, Western Siberia), iron ores (Kursk), copper (Norilsk) and much more.

Students learn how minerals are mined, how they are cultivated, and how they need to be protected.

Map of mineral resources of Russia

Russia is the largest country in the world by area. Therefore, it is not surprising that a huge amount of a wide variety of minerals is concentrated on its territory. In the depths of Russia, deposits of oil, gas, ferrous and non-ferrous metal ores, and precious stones have been identified, explored and developed.

The Ural Mountains chain is extremely rich in ore deposits. Copper, iron, manganese, nickel, chromite ores, as well as gold and platinum, occur here. There are also ornamental stones of magnificent beauty here. Altai contains huge reserves of polymetallic ores and mercury. Transbaikalia is rich in uranium and gold.

Colossal reserves of coal are concentrated in the sedimentary cover of the ancient East European Platform. Western Siberia has rich oil and gas deposits. In the foothills of the Urals and in the Caspian lowland, potassium salts are mined - the most valuable raw material for the chemical industry. The designations of mineral resources in Russia are shown in more detail on the following map.

According to geologists, the country has enormous reserves of oil (12% of global reserves), natural gas (3%), iron ore (25%), nickel (33%), zinc (15%), and potassium salt (31%). However, the degree of their industrial development remains quite low. Experts estimate Russia's total mineral reserves at 28,000 billion US dollars.

Symbols of mineral resources on the map

Each fossil has its own designation. Let's look at the most common ones:

1. Coal is designated in the shape of a black square.
2. Brown coal is a white square with diagonal black stripes.
3. Oil shale is a black parallelogram.
4. Oil is a black elongated trapezoid, similar to a triangle.
5. Gas is the same symbol as oil, only white.
6. Iron ore is a black triangle.
7. Aluminum ores - a white circle inside a black square.
8. Copper - black rectangle.
9. Gold is a black and white circle, colored in half.
10. Table salt - white cube.

What do mineral symbols look like?

I don’t know how it is now, but before, even in the 90s, we were forced to learn symbols in order to use maps. There were also a lot of educational economic games, in which the symbols were remembered very easily. Nowadays there are probably no such games anymore. I don’t know about the school curriculum, but the designations look like this:

Mineral resources usually include rocks and minerals that are of industrial or national economic importance. Their classification is different: they may differ in physical properties

• solid - these include rocks, coal, marble, granite, salts and ores
• liquids such as oil, mineral waters
• gas - the name itself speaks for itself - these are flammable gases.

Classification can also be made according to the type of their use, then the types can be as follows

• ornamental or precious stones

All of them have their own symbols adopted by the international standard. .

We all use atlases at school, in elementary school it is a determinant atlas, in higher grades there are contour maps with an atlas on geography, where students must complete the task and draw in the contour maps, but without special knowledge, it will be difficult to complete the task. For example, what color to paint the forest areas where the tundra is on the map, you need to know its territory and boundaries, where it passes. The same goes for notations. For example, there is a task where you will need to indicate the location of iron ore. This is where the notation will help us. I suggest you look at the designation used in the atlas. This is their international designation.

About minerals in brief

Minerals mean those natural formations in the earth's crust that are used or can be used in material production (as fuel or raw materials).
Most often they are in a solid state of aggregation. But they can be liquid or gaseous (like oil or gas, for example). By their origin, minerals can be organic or inorganic, and by the conditions of formation - metamorphic, igneous or exogenous. According to their functional purpose, they are divided into three large groups:

1. Ore (aluminum, copper, iron, gold).
2. Non-metallic (diamonds, limestone, sand, rock salt).
3. Fuel or combustible (oil, natural gas, coal, shale).

Sometimes precious and semi-precious stones are classified into a separate group.

Minerals occur at different depths. In the depths of the earth's crust they are found in the form of veins, lenses, layers, placers, etc. Many of them are extracted by humans to the surface using mines, quarries and wells. The field of economic activity that deals with the development and extraction of mineral resources is called mining.

Symbols of mineral resources on maps

Deposits of certain mineral resources are marked on a number of maps: general geographical, geological, economic and others. In this case, special designations of minerals are used. They belong to the category of non-scale cartographic signs.

Geographical designations for minerals used in cartography are generally accepted. You can see what they look like in the diagram below. These signs are studied at school as part of the subjects of general geography and natural history. They can also be found in school and thematic atlases.

In addition, there is a special GOST number 2.857-75, which was developed by a number of Russian scientific institutes. This standard specifies not only the designations of minerals, but also the conditions of their occurrence. However, these signs are used exclusively by geologists. Thus, diamond deposits in this GOST are designated in red, sulfur – lemon, oil – brown, rock salt – purple.

But we will still return to those designations of minerals that are widely used in cartography. Let's take a closer look at what the symbols look like for those mineral resources that are of the most industrial importance in the modern world.

Ore minerals: symbols of deposits

Examples: iron and manganese ore, copper, nickel, mercury, tin, aluminum, gold, tungsten.

Symbols of ore minerals on maps are most often red. They look like this:

• Iron ores are a filled equilateral triangle.
• Titan is a diamond with the left half shaded.
• Molybdenum is a rhombus with a white square inside.
• Copper is a filled elongated rectangle.
• Tungsten is an unfilled square.
• Mercury is an open circle.
• Aluminum is an equilateral square with a circle inside.
• Gold is a circle with the left half shaded.
• Polymetallic ores are a designation reminiscent of a radiation hazard sign.

Ore minerals

Deposits of ferrous and non-ferrous metal ores on geographical maps are often indicated by red symbols. Let's find out what type the most common ones are:

• Iron ore is a filled equilateral triangle.
• Manganese ore is a sign that resembles a crown with two prongs.
• Titan is a diamond with the left half shaded.
• Molybdenum is a rhombus with a square inside.
• Tungsten is an empty square.
• Aluminum is a square with a circle inside.
• Copper is a filled rectangle.
• Mercury is an empty circle.
• Gold is a circle with the left half filled in.

Non-metallic minerals

Examples: graphite, limestone, sand, kaolin, granite, clay, rock salt, phosphorites, marble.

Symbols for non-metallic minerals on maps are usually green. They look like this:

• Asbestos is the symbol of a simple Greek cross.
• Native sulfur is an equilateral triangle with the left half shaded.
• Mica is an empty square crossed along one diagonal.
• Phosphorites are a filled circle with a vertical slot in the middle.
• Apatity is a filled circle with a horizontal slot in the middle.
• Diamonds are an eight-pointed star.
• Limestone is an empty square intersected along both diagonals.
• Kaolin is a square crossed along one diagonal, with the right half shaded.

Brief information about minerals

There are a lot of ores and minerals in nature that are used in modern human life. The predominant amount of minerals are in the solid state, but there are also liquid and gaseous ones. Symbols of minerals on the map can be colored black or red, depending on their origin - igneous or sedimentary.

Classification:

• 1. Ore;
• 1.1. Black;
• 1.2. Colored;
• 1.3. Precious;
• 2. Nonmetallic
• 2.1. Base stones;
• 2.2. Semi-precious;
• 2.3. Precious
• 3. Liquids:
• 3.1. Mineral water;
• 3.2. Oil;
• 4. Gases.

They are formed deep underground, lying under layers of sedimentary rocks. Many minerals are the product of decay of organic remains without access to oxygen. A huge amount of equipment, resources and people are used to develop deposits.

But the basic symbols of minerals show not only their type, but also have a purposeful meaning. Almost all ores, fuels, metals, gases have their own image, with which they can be easily found on the map.

The use of symbols for minerals is necessary to facilitate the interpretation of the map so that there is no letter confusion. Several dozen different ores can be mined in one area; it would be inconvenient to label them in words.

Non-metallic minerals

This is one of the largest groups of field designations, examining which you can notice a special pattern. The salt will look like a cube with three sides. If it is ordinary, it is not painted over, unlike potassium, where only one front edge remains clean. But Glauber's salt is indicated by a completely different sign, which looks like peat. This is a figure of three rectangles, two of which lie at the base, and the last one is on top of them in the center. It is completely painted black.

Fuel (combustible) minerals

Examples: oil, natural gas, peat, coal, brown coal, oil shale.

Symbols for fuel minerals on maps are usually black. They look like this:

• Oil is a filled isosceles triangle.
• Natural gas is an empty isosceles triangle.
• Coal is a shaded equilateral square.
• Brown coal is an empty square with diagonal hatching.
• Oil shale is a shaded parallelogram.

Types of minerals

Most minerals are in a solid state, but there are also gifts from the Earth's interior that are liquid or gas (Figure 1).

Each type of fossil has its own icon. They are often marked with a color (black or red), depending on the igneous or sedimentary origin of the rock.

All minerals are:

1. Ore:
   these include ferrous, non-ferrous and precious ores and rocks that are used in industry and jewelry.
2. Non-metallic:
   this category includes semi-precious, precious and non-precious stones.
3. Liquid:
   in addition to oil, mineral waters also include mineral waters, which have pronounced healing properties.
4. Gaseous:
   this category includes various gases, including natural gases.

Figure 1. All minerals are divided into ore, non-metallic and fuel.
All minerals are formed deep underground. Some of them are formed as a result of decay of organic matter without access to oxygen. Symbols are used to accurately show the location of a particular rock. If all types of minerals were labeled with letters, sorting through the jumble would be extremely difficult.

Non-metallic

The group of non-metallic minerals is considered one of the most numerous (Figure 2).

Looking at the symbols for this group, you can notice a certain pattern. For example, salt is represented by a trihedral cube. If it is ordinary rock salt, the cube is not painted over, but if it is potassium salt, only the front edge is left clean. Glauber's salt has its own designation, similar to peat.