Rockman's Coal Page
(drawing courtesy of The Open University )
A Brief History of Coal Use
Coal has be used for heating since the cave man.  Archeologists have also found evidence that the Romans in England used it in the second and third centuries (100-200 AD). Coal from the Fu-shun mine in northeastern China may have been used to smelt copper as early as 3,000 years ago.
In the 1700s, the English found that coal could produce a fuel that burned cleaner and hotter than wood charcoal.  In North American during the 1300s, the Hopi Indians in used coal for cooking, heating and to bake the pottery they made from clay. Coal was later rediscovered in the United States by explorers in 1673. However, commercial coal mines did not start operation until the 1740s in Virginia.
The Industrial Revolution played a major role in expanding the use of coal. During the first half of the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution spread to the United States. Steamships and steam-powered railroads were becoming the chief forms of transportation, and they used coal to fuel their boilers.
During the Civil War, weapons factories were beginning to use coal. By 1875, coke (which is made from coal) replaced charcoal as the primary fuel for iron blast furnaces to make steel.
Where is Coal Found
Coal is found in many of the lower 48 states of U.S. and throughout the rest of the world. Coal is mined out of the ground using various methods. Some coal mines are dug by sinking vertical or horizontal shafts deep under ground, and coal miners travel by elevators or trains deep under ground to dig the coal. Other coal is mined in strip mines where huge steam shovels strip away the top layers above the coal. The layers are then restored after the coal is taken away.
Coal Fields of the Lower 48 Conterminous United States
by John Tully at the USGS
Coal is mined in 32 states. The three major U.S. coal producing regions are Appalachia (West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Ohio), the Illinois Basin (Illinois, Indiana and Western Kentucky) and the Powder River Basin (Wyoming and Montana). Lignite coal is produced primarily in western North Dakota and in eastern Montana.
Appalachian mines produce primarily bituminous coal from both surface and underground mines . Appalachian coal tends to be high in energy content and low in sulphur .
Illinois Basin mines also produce primarily bituminous coal but are generally underground operations, yielding coal that is high in energy content but also high in sulfur.
Powder River Basin coal is of the sub-bituminous type and generally mined from the surface. Basin coal, while often lower in energy content, is known for its particularly low sulfur content.
The way the layers or seams of coal occur and the has much to do with how it is mined and its ultimate cost to consumers. For example, in Illinois Basin mines, 50 feet of overburden must often be removed to reach a 5-10 foot seam of coal. At the other end of the spectrum, in the Powder River Basin, you may only have to remove 5 feet of overburden to get to a 50 foot thick seam - substantially lowering the cost of mining.
The seams of coal are clearly visible in this photo taken at a Colorado mine.
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We also sell individual specimens of coal on our Sedmentary Rocks page.
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