tar sand

noun

Geology.

1. bituminous sand or sandstone from which asphalt can be obtained.

tar sand

noun

1. a sandstone in which hydrocarbons have been trapped; the lighter compounds evaporate, leaving a residue of asphalt in the rock pores

Word History and Origins

Origin of tar sand¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

No stranger to extractive industries, he worked in Alberta’s tar sand oil fields before working until retirement as a police officer at the Makah Nation, the Quinault Indian Nation and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

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So she headed west, to the tar sand fields of northern Alberta, one of the world’s most environmentally destructive oil operations, where workers lived in barracks-like camps and men vastly outnumbered women.

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In fact, there’s no more good tar sand pipelines.

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One of those spills, a 2010 release of more than 1 million gallons of sludgy tar sand soil into a Michigan creek polluted a nearly 40-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River.

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According to Ms. Kearney, a 2010 oil spill on another Enbridge line in Michigan, which poured nearly 850,000 gallons of tar sand into the Kalamazoo River, piqued public interest in Line 5 and other pipelines.

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