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Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian times. [3] [4] Coal is used primarily as a fuel. While coal has been known and used for thousands of years, its usage was limited until the Industrial Revolution.
The Pennine Coal Measures Group is preceded (underlain) by the Millstone Grit Group which is of Namurian age. It is succeeded (overlain) by the Warwickshire Group which comprises a largely non-productive sequence of red beds. [3] [4] Descriptions of the coal seams are found within (or linked from) articles on the individual coalfields. Many of ...
The primary reason for the switch from wood to coal was one of economics. In 1809, a cord of wood cost $2.00 and a bushel of coal cost $0.06, delivered. The coal was plentiful and laborers, working in mines within a mile of Pittsburgh, earned about $1.60 per week and could produce as many as 100 bushels of coal daily. [22]
Coal forms when organic matter builds up in waterlogged, anoxic swamps, known as peat mires, and is then buried, compressing the peat into coal. The majority of Earth's coal deposits were formed during the late Carboniferous and early Permian. The plants from which they formed contributed to changes in the Carboniferous Earth's atmosphere. [25]
It is the most abundant rank of coal, with deposits found around the world, often in rocks of Carboniferous age. Bituminous coal is formed from sub-bituminous coal that is buried deeply enough to be heated to 85 °C (185 °F) or higher. Bituminous coal is used primarily for electrical power generation [1] and in the steel industry.
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse was caused by a cooler drier climate that initially fragmented, then collapsed the rainforest ecosystem. [2] During most of the rest of Carboniferous times, the coal forests were mainly restricted to refugia in North America (such as the Appalachian and Illinois coal basins) and central Europe.
American geologists recognized the importance of Pennsylvania's coal region and named the Upper Carboniferous Period the Pennsylvanian Period because of the abundance of coal in the state. Despite this, Celestine was proposed as the state mineral in 2002. The proposal however, was not approved by the state legislature.
The economics of coal mining (1928). Faull, Margaret L. "Coal mining and the landscape of England, 1700 to the present day." Landscape History 30.1 (2008): 59–74. Fine, B. The Coal Question: Political Economy and Industrial Change from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day (1990). Galloway, R.L. Annals of coal mining and the coal trade ...