THE FORMATION OF NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCESLike oil, natural is a product of decomposed organic matter, usually by ancient marine microorganisms left at the bottom of bodies of water mixed with mud, silt and sand on the sea floor , gradually becoming buried over time. As it is sealed in an oxygen-free environment and exposed to increasing amounts of heat and pressure, organic materials undergo a thermal decomposition process that converts them into hydrocarbons. The lightest of these hydrocarbons exit in a gaseous state under normal conditions and are collectively known as natural gas. Once this natural gas forms, it depends on two very critical characteristics of the surrounding rock: porosity and permeability. POPOSITY means the amount of empty space present within the grains of the rock. Highly porous rocks such as sandstones, on a good day have porosity of 5% to 25%. this gives them a large amount of space to store fluids such as oil, water and gas. PERMEABILITY is a measure of the degree to which the pore spaces in a rock are interconnected. A rock with high permeability will allow more gases and liquids to flow through the rock very easily. After natural gas is formed, it rises to the surface through the pore spaces of the rock due to its low density compared to the surrounding rock. MAJOR RESERVES AND HOW THE GAS IS EXTRACTED The largest reserve of natural gas is found in...Russia !, which has seven times the reserves of the United States. Our country is endowed with a significant natural gas resource and new discoveries have revised that number to the upward position of recent years. But what we Americans do best is that every year we use more gas than can be produced, so we are dependent on Canada… The gas resource available in the United States. In the short term, renewable energy added to the grid may simply displace the use of natural gas, because energy produced from natural gas typically has the highest operating costs. In the long term, more renewable energy is more likely to encourage the use of natural gas as a complementary energy source. Natural gas plants have the operational flexibility to quickly vary their production, so this will allow them to be able to provide greater reliability to the electric power system as it transitions to greater shares of renewable generation. Works Cited Malouf, Agnes and David Wimberly The Health Hazard of Natural Gas http://www.environmentalhealth.ca/summer01gas.htmlHow Natural Gas Works http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/ener...