Answer:
B. Geosphere and biosphere.
Explanation:
Earth as a planet can be subdivided into subsystems called "spheres". The spheres that make up the Earth are as follows; geosphere or lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere etc.
As related to this question:
- The GEOSPHERE refers to the solid part of the Earth, which involves rocks, minerals etc. of the Earth crust. It can be regarded to be the physical land.
- The BIOSPHERE refers to a collection of all the living organisms inhabiting the Earth. This includes plants, animals, microbes etc.
According to these question, surface mining for coal is an act that involves removing all the vegetation and rock above the coal being mined. This means that the physical land/rocks (geosphere) and vegetation of plants (biosphere) covering the coal beneath are affected. Hence, based on the explanation above, GEOSPHERE and BIOSPHERE are two of Earth's subsystems most immediately affected by surface mining.
