Introduction to Coal and Coal-bearing Systems

Dr. Joan Esterle

Earth Sciences
University of Queensland

www.earth.uq.edu
Basic Facts

COAL is not just a BLACK ROCK!

Coal quality and composition varies..
Within seams
across pits
between different mine sites
Between seams

WHY?
Different starting ingredients (composition)
plants, water, mineral matter
GRADE
Different levels of decay of plant ingredients in the
peat mire TYPE
death, decay, humification
Different ranks (thermal maturity or coalification) RANK
heat, pressure, time
 Process of accumulation, burial and coalification
Image modified from Press and Seiver, 2004

Grade and type

forms here
Rank continues to change
Grade can be altered
Peat accumulates in mires
With continued peat accumulation water table is
often rising, causing younger plant zones to overtake
older plant zones, creating a vertical succession
If subsidence continues, the water levels are too high
for plants to grow or peat to accumulate and
sediments wash in to bury the peat, forming stone The deeper the burial, the higher the heat, the
partings if the peat grows again after flooding greater the thermal maturation (rank)
Burial and Thermal Maturation- Coal Rank
Understanding the origins and geological history of coal give insight to
spatial variabilty in coal thickness, quality, and overburden character

Outcrop Scale

Goonyella Mine, Bowen Basin, Qld

The Coal Face
In particular rank, composition and texture will control coal physical
and chemical properties for extraction, processing and utilisation

MEGASCOPIC MICROSCOPIC

telovitrinite
BRIGHT BANDED
id
dv

sf

DULL
50 mm 250 microns
What is coal?

Definition: coal is a rock formed from organic plant matter

that has been chemically altered by heat and pressure
through burial in the subsurface over time.

Thermogenic
Carbon Dioxide
& Methane

accumulation burial thermal maturation

Cartoon courtesy of Kentucky Geological Survey
Where does coal form?
Coal is the alteration product from peat, which forms in mires (swamps,
marshes and bogs) through processes similar to a compost pile. Peat
needs wet, soggy, oxygen poor environments to accumulate.

Aerial photo of a
bog-lake complex
in western Siberia

Water The spatial

Shrubs
variability in
and
moss vegetation is
retained in the
peat
Trees

Photo courtesy of Jochen

Kassan and Simon Lang,
Australian School of
Petroleum-Adelaide

What happens to your lettuce when its been left in the refrigerator for way too long?
Factors required for significant peat accumulation thickness
Climate: need conditions of high rainfall or humidity to support luxuriant
plant growth (can be tropical, temperate or cold)
Slowly subsiding basin: to allow thick accumulation of peat and burial
under continuous shallow water
No clastic sediment: little or no influx of normal clastic sediment into
peat mires from surrounding water courses
Reducing conditions: Stagnant or nearly stagnant water so that available
oxygen is used up and plant material is not oxidised

Plant
production
outstrips
decay
Similar to carbonate mounds/reefs
Common areas for accumulation & burial

i.e. Water-logged areas due to:

Low gradients
Subsidence
High rainfall or high humidity

Which tend to occur in

Deltas
Coastal plains
Alluvial basins

Sandstones associated with

these environments tend to make
good petroleum reservoirs
(channels, splays, coastal bars,
barrier islands, etc.) which is why
they are so well studied in the
modern

What controls the shape of deltas, coastal plains and river systems?
Distribution of modern peat mires

High latitude peat mires

Low latitude peat mires

http://www.peatlandsni.gov.uk/formation/global.htm#globalmap

There are a variety of shapes, sizes and locations

What else is varying?
Modern Analogues
Western Siberian
Lowlands

Big trees- little trees- no trees

Peat thickness >10m to < 1m
Peat Mires
Tundra

Increasing permafrost
Forest Tundra

Boreal Forest

Forest/Steppe

2 factors at play: climate

and depositional
environment
Plant succession in modern peatlands

Primary peat woodland

Black water brook

If water table is raised or lowered, Oligotrophic bog lake

then these different vegetation
zones will overlay one another
Different peat types derive from plant type and degree of decay

THESE DIFFERENT PEAT TYPES ARE REFLECTED IN DIFFERENT COAL TYPES

Change With Plant Succession Recorded In The Coal

Reconstruction of Permian Peat Mire Flora

Flooding, burial and formation of seam splits

Flooding occurs from any adjacent water bodies

Partings also derive from volcanic ash falls
Associated clastic sediments will control
roof and floor conditions

Weak roof over strong

rider

channel

Sandstone
slickensides
connectivity
Pyrite & water
make

rolls
Floor heave
Sedimentary
dykes Compaction
faults

coal
Modified from Greb & Popp, 1999
sandstone
Intbd silt/sandstone
Siltstone/mudstone
Generalised model for mire development

Evolutionary sequence of
mire development and peat
accumulation manifested in
the stratigraphy of coal
types (megascopic and
microscopic)

Lateral variability will occur

due to variations in the
substrate topography which
is often swamped by mire
development

Paludification (to make a

lake)

Terrestrialisation (to make

land) McCabe, 1984
Vertical lithotype sequence in coal seams
Coal lithotypes can be
used to predict:
0

correlation
100

BLASTHOLESTEMMING
diggability
200
Gl4
pillar strength
300

selective mining (highgrade

400

PLY 1 for coking coal)

CHARGE
500

fines generation
PLY 2
600
washability prediction
PLY3
700
coal quality
800

product composition
900
PLY 4
permeability
1000
RAMP 27 LD CORE
inseam borehole stability
gas drainage
Etc
Coal Type, Strength And Cleat Density

Bright banded coal Dull coal

highly cleated poorly cleated
thin to thick vitrain minor thin vitrain
WHICH WILL BE MORE FRIABLE?
WHICH WILL BE MORE PERMEABLE?
Lithotype Profiles Can Vary Laterally
NORTH RELATIVE DISTANCE IS 50 km SOUTH

Ply 2 datum

Ply 3

Ply 4

Leader

If I wanted to mine coking coal, where would I put my mining section?

If I wanted high fracture permeability, where would I put my well?
Seam characteristics will change depending on depositional environment

Horne, et al., 1978

Basic delta model for predicting variability
in coal geometry, quality and associated clastic sediments
Vertical profile

Alluvial plain: thick coals,

laterally extensive, low ash and
sulphur with sandstone
dominated interburden
Upper delta plain: thin to thick
coals, more laterally extensive,
variable interburden with thick
but narrow sandstone bodies
Lower delta plain: thin coals,
laterally variable, often with
higher sulphur contents and
mudstone/siltstone interburden

BUT THIS MODEL HAS AS MANY

VARIABLES AS MODERN DELTA
SYSTEMS AND MIRES DO TODAY

Horne & others, 1978; Ferm and Cavaroc, 1968

Distribution Of Coals Through Time
Paleoclimate controls the vegetation type and the degree of decay
and is therefore will control coal composition and banding texture

Gondwana Cold Temperate Permian

Euramerican Tropical
After Walker, 2000 cited in Thomas, 2002 Carboniferous
And the ingredients making up coal evolved over time
classic sources classic sources for coal, but can
for petroleum also generate petroleum products
during thermal maturation

atmospheric oxygen
Increase in

photosynthesis

Bacteria and primitive algae

atmosphere

Abiological-chemical evolution
Reducing

End of first geosynclinal cycles

Larger quantities of water on surface of earth

Origin of Earth

Diversification of land plants, esp. trees leads to variability in

coal texture & composition between ages
The ingredients and the rank will control coking behaviour
Lateral continuity in coal bearing systems
Bowen Basin and Structural Outliers
Coal South South Galilee Cooper
Group North Central East West Basin Basin
IV

Bandanna
Formation
(Youngest) correlatives

Baralaba
Rangal Coal Rangal Coal Coal Bandanna Betts Creek Toolachee
Measures Measures Measures Formation Beds Formation
Moranbah German Ft Cooper and equivalents
Coal Creek
III Measures Formation
Collinsville Blair Athol
Coal Coal
Measures Measures
Various Coal
Measures
(Wolfang,
Clermont,
Miclere,
Coal Karin and
Measures at Moorlands Freitag
II Rugby Basins) Formation
I
Reids Dome Reids Dome Aramac CoalPatchawarra
(Oldest) Beds Beds Measures Formation

Prospectivity for coking and thermal coal production

Producing or
highly Moderately Poorly
prospective prospective prospective
Legend: interval interval interval

Queensland Permian Coal

Measures

Source: http://www.webgis.nrm.qld.gov/webgis/webqmin/report/coal/QldCoalBasins.htm
100 Km
Landscape
Reconstruction

Late Permian

Time Of Extensive Coal

Formation

Moranbah Cm And
German Ck Cm

REFERENCE
Alluvial fans Marine shelf
Fluvial Marine reefs
Lacustrine Intrusives
Coastal Volcanics

Fielding et al, 2000

Late Permian Moranbah-German Creek CM
NORTHERN TILE MIDDLE TILE SOUTHERN
TILE

Ft Cooper-Burngrove
Rangal Coal Measures Fm

Goonyella Upper

Macmillan Formation (marine)

P seams
~250m

Pleiades
Goonyella Middle Aquila
Tieri
Corvus

Goonyella Lower German Creek

Moranbah/German Ck coal measures thin to the south (~350km)

Individual seams thin from >10m to <1m by splitting and tapering
In general, brightness increases to south as seams thin (sulphur increases)
Interburden model

Including basalts

REGIONAL CONTROLS ON STRUCTURE

Thicker sandstones stacking in lows
Zones of faulting in the hinges of folds
Splitting across fold hinges
Overburden geotechnical facies model
Lateral continuity high along strike, low across

Weak roof, Thick Thick, stacked

abundant sandstone sandstones
carbonaceous over weak roof
horizons
Summary

Understanding the environment in which the coal formed

can assist in understanding and predicting:

Coal seam geometry and splitting patterns

Vertical and lateral variability in coal grade and type
Variability in chemical and physical properties of the
coal
Variation in processing behaviour
Variation in utilisation behaviour
Geotechnical characteristics of roof and floor
Potential for geological discontinuities
Everything
Highly Recommended Reading

Ward, W.E., II. 1990. Coal- Chapter 2.6, In Bruce A. Kennedy (ed) Surface
Mining. Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Inc. Littleton,
Colorado. Approximately 23 pages.

Online Digital Library

http://books.smenet.org/Surf_Min_2ndEd/sm-ch02-sc06-ss00-bod.cfm