Distribution of minor elements in some coals in the Western and Southwestern regions of the Interior coal province

Abstract

The average minor-element content was determined in 48 columnar samples of coal of Pennsylvanian age and in 4 samples of lignite from rocks of Eocene age. These samples were collected from Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in the Western region of the Interior coal province, and from Texas in the Southwestern region. The coals of Iowa and Missouri contain more of all the minor elements except titanium, tin, and lanthanum than do the coals of Oklahoma and Arkansas. Two samples of lignite of Eocene age from Arkansas contain more of all the minor elements, except boron, than do two samples of similar age from Texas. Weathered coal contains appreciably more beryllium, titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel, copper, gallium, yttrium, and lanthanum than does unweathered coal. The distribution of elements, particularly the ratio of yttrium to lanthanum, suggests that the Oklahoma-Arkansas coal basin was a main drainageway of the inland sea in Des Moines time. INTRODUCTION This study of the Western and Southwestern regions of the Interior coal province (fig. 1) is one of a series dealing with the major coalproducing areas of the United States. These studies were made to evaluate coals as possible sources of some of the minor elements, particularly germanium. Our previous publications in this series are: Concentration of Germanium in the Ash of American A Progress Report (Stadnichenko and others, 1953); Beryllium Content of American Coals (Stadnichenko and others, 1961); Geochemistry of Minor Elements in of the Northern Great Plains Coal Province, which includes a large bibliography on other investigations of minor elements in coals (Zubovic and others, 1961); and Geochemistry of Minor Elements in of the Eastern Interior Region (Zubovic and others, 1964). In the present study, the average minor-element content was determined in 48 columnar samples of coal of Pennsylvanian age Dl D2 MINOK ELEMENTS IN AMEKICAN COALS 100° 98° 96° 94° 92 c 90 c 88° 86°