Coal, Production Of
Geology of Coal
Coal is a fossil fuel—an energy source whose beginnings can be traced to once-living organic materials. It is a combustible mineral, formed from the remains of trees, ferns, and other plants that existed and died in the tropical forests 400 million to 1 billion years ago. Over vast spans of time, heat and pressure from Earth's geological processes compressed and altered the many layers of trees and plants, slowly transforming these ancient vegetal materials into what we know as coal today. The several kinds of coal now mined are the result of different degrees of alteration of the original material.
It is estimated that approximately 0.9 to 2.1 m of reasonably compacted plant material was required to form 0.3 m of bituminous coal. Different ranks of coal require different amounts of time. It has been estimated that the time required for deposition of peat sufficient to provide 0.3 m of the various ranks of coal was: lignite, 160 years; bituminous coal, 260 years; and anthracite, 490 years. Another estimate indicates that a 2.4 m bed of Pittsburgh Seam (bituminous) coal required about 2,100 years for the deposition of necessary peat, while an anthracite bed with a thickness of 9.1 m required about 15,000 years.
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