Abstract
The Petřkovice Member is the basal unit of the paralic succession of the Ostrava Formation of the Upper Silesian Basin. This member is a valuable source of information about the transition from a marine basin filled with siliciclastic sediments into a paralic basin with the beginning of coal-bearing sedimentation. Models of: (1) the number of coal seams, (2) their total thickness, and (3) the coal content with respect to the total thickness of the succession were created to describe and assess the coal-bearing capacity of the Petřkovice Member. The authors present models for coal seam thicknesses exceeding either 10 or 40 cm. The coal-bearing capacity of the Petřkovice Member is very low. The average share of coal seams thicker than 0.1 m is 3%. The share of coal seams with a thickness that exceeds 0.4 m is only 1.66%. Moreover, in large areas of the basin, in the N and NE parts, the coal-bearing capacity is close to zero, because coal seams of greater thickness were detected only locally there. Based on these models and on other geological data, it is obvious that the onset of coal sedimentation was gradual and limited to particular sites showing the greatest subsidence of the basin floor. In places where minor subsidence took place, there were likely unfavorable conditions for accumulation of organic matter. Normal 0 21 false false false PL X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Standardowy; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family:CG Times 12pt; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
Highlights
The Upper Silesian Basin is currently economically the most important European bituminous coal basin
Logs of exploration boreholes were the principal data source for creating the data files used for modelling the development of the Petøkovice Member
The majority did not have a complete drilling log and, could not be used for modelling of the coal-bearing capacity of the Petøkovice Member. 206 boreholes did not reach the bottom of this unit, while for 75 boreholes the roof of the unit was missing due to erosion
Summary
The Upper Silesian Basin (hereinafter referred to as the USB) is currently economically the most important European bituminous coal basin. The annual output of the USB amounts to about 70.2 million tons of bituminous coking and thermal coal. The majority of the production comes from Poland The Petøkovice Member is the oldest lithostratigraphical unit of the Ostrava Formation, which represents the paralic stage of the development of the USB. The results of the investigation contribute to knowledge of the nature of the transition from relatively deep sea flysch sedimentation of the Moravian–Silesian Basin into the coal-bearing sedimentation of the paralic development of the USB. This study contributes to the knowledge of general factors controlling the development of coal-bearing basins in the foreland position of the Variscan orogeny. Hýlová et al (2013) recognized the geological significance of analysis of the overall thickness and the content of sand in the Petøkovice Member
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