The Application of Geology to the Discovery, Exploitation and Origin of Coal

Abstract

The application of geology to the discovery, exploitation, and origin of coal is, in general, similar to that of any other mineral resource. Perhaps, in-so-far as Kansas is concerned, applied to coal the application may be somewhat simpler. For the most part my experience with coal has been confined to inventory studies sponsored by the State Geological Survey of Kansas. The object of these studies was to ascertain the state's coal reserves involving thus the distribution of the coal, its thickness, depth to coal, character of overburden, physical and chemical properties of the coal, amount mined, estimating the reserves classified as measured, indicated, and inferred, and calculating the amount of recoverable coal. Currently coals of six groups of rocks have been inventoried and published by myself (Schoewe, 1944, 1946, 1951, 1952, 1959) and coals of another group by other staff members of the Survey (Bowsher and Jewett, 1943). Inventory studies of the coal require first of all a careful mapping of the coal. Mapping is dependent upon a knowledge of the presence of outcrops and data furnished by drill records of one kind or another. Finding of outcrops of coal in the coal country of Kansas, especially southeastern Kansas, is not quite as simple as one might wish for. The reason for this is twofold, first, the Kansas coals on the average are thin-one to two feet thick with occasionally a thickness of three feet. Coals of such thicknesses can and are very readily concealed by slump, dense vegetation, and other natural causes. Second, the coal country of southeastern Kansas is characterized by low topographic relief which is, in general, not conducive for the finding of outcrops of thin coal. The application of geology to the discovery of coal therefore resolves itself into two considerations, namely (1) study of topography, and (2), study of stratigraphy of the coal units.