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what are the uses of fossils and how they are dug by machines?
Fossil fuels are high energy substances that are extracted from the Earth. Some fossil-based fuels, such as coal, have been used for heating and fueling purposes for hundreds and possibly thousands of years. Others, such as natural gas and petroleum, rose in popularity after the Industrial Revolution to become the most prominent forms of fuel throughout the 20th century. Fossil fuel, used to run so much of the world, has a heavy environmental price, compounded by the unnerving fact that the planet is running out of reserves.

Petroleum, coal, and natural gas are by-products of geological processes deep in the Earth. Coal is created in swamps, where plant sediment gathers over vast periods of time and slowly turns into peat and finally to coal. Petroleum and gas tend to form in the depths of the ocean, where the Earth cooks deeply buried organic material over millions of years to form oil.

 Oil may be the oldest of the fossil fuels used as a type of petrochemical; the ancient Egyptians used oil for medical treatments and possibly cosmetics. Native Americans, too, had fossil fuels used for waterproofing and sometimes also for medical purposes.


The creation of fossil fuels used today began over 300 million years ago, according to some experts. As science has discovered, the Earth is rapidly running out of fossil fuels; a prospect which could be devastating to all facets of modern existence. Additionally, fossil fuels do heavy damage to the environment and are a main culprit in the case of human-caused global warming. Although they have powered the world almost exclusively for a century and contributed to human society for long before, it appears that fossil fuels will someday need to be replaced by other energy sources.


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