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Virginia's Coal Ages VIRGINIA DIVISION OF MINERAL RESOURCES PUBLICATION 149 VIRGINIA'S COAL AGES S. O. BIRD COMMONWEALTH OF' VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF MINES, MINERALS AND ENERGY DIVISION OF MINERAL RESOURCES Stanley S. Johnson, State Geologist CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA 1997 DEPARTMENT OF MINES. MINERALS AND ENERGY RICHMOND, VIRGINIA O.Gene Dishner, Director DIVISION OF MINERAL RESOURCES CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA Slanley S. Johnson, State Geologist and Division Director 80+963-2308 STAIIF Kay T. Hasenauer, Executive Secretary 80+963-23W ECONOMIC MINERALS AND ENERGY SECTION SPATIAL DATA AND EASTERN GEOLOGY SECTION Palmer C. Sweet, Section Head, 804-963-2313 lan J. Duncan, Section Head, 804-963-23V1 Jack E. Nolde, Geologist Senior, 804-963-2318 C. R. Berquist, Jr., Geologist Senior, 757-221-2448 Roy S. Sites, Geologist Senior, 8M-963-2320 Elizabeth V. M. Campbell, Geologist Senio,r, 8M-963-2311 Michael L. Upchurch, Geologist Senior, 8M-963-2322 Nick H. Evans, Geologist Senior, 804-963-2317 V/illiam S. Henika, Geologist Senior, 540-231-4298 SOUTHIVEST MINERALS AND GEOLOGY SECTION Karen K. Hostettler, Geologist Senior, 8M-963-2312 Alfred R. Taylor, Section Head,540-676-5577 David B. Spears, Geologist Senior, 8M-963-2319 James A. Lovett, Geologist Seniot 540-67 6-5577 William W. Whitlock, Geologist Senior, 5&676-5577 PUBLICATIONS AND WESTERN GEOLOGY SECTION Eugene K. Rader, Section Head and Editor, 8M-963-23rc SALES AND SIIPPORT SECTION David A. Hubbard, Jr., Geologist Senior, 8M-963-2314 Delores J. Green, Office Manager, 8M-963-2315 John D. Marr, Jr., Geologist Senior, 8M-963-23A6 Antionet&e Arsic, Office Services Specialist, 8M-963-2270 Vernon N. Morris, Cartographic Drafter Assist., 8M-963-2324 Blwin W. Marshall, Geologist Technician, 8M-963-2316 Gerald P. Wilkes, Geologist Senior, 8M-963-2323 Paige S. Roach, Store Operations Supervisor, 8M-963-2305 Sates: 804-293-5121 Information: E04-963-23ffi Portions of this publication may be quoted or copied if credit is given to the author, the Division of Mineral Resources, and the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. VIRGINIA DIVISION OF MINERAL RESOURCES PUBLICATION 149 VIRGII\IA'S COAL AGES S. O. BIRD COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF MINES, MINERALS AND ENERGY DIVISION OF MINERAL RESOURCES Stanley S. Johnson, State Geologist CHARLOTTES VILLE, VIRGINIA t997 CONTENTS Page ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE Page :r?l i: ["if*:*iti#3*:Jffi:"ilili:i.:*::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 5. Restoration scene of a FIGURE l. Physiographic provinces of Virginia and areas mined for coal.............. ............ 2 2. Generalized stratigraphic section of the southwest Virginia coalfield ............... 3 3. U.S. consumption of oil, natural gas, and coal 1970-1994 ................ ................ 3 4. Charred remains of the dense forest in the Great Dismal Swamp......... ............. 4 6. Confguration of base of Dismal 7. Triassic, Carboniferous, and Upper Devonian rocks of parts of Virginia. ......... 9 8. Generalized geologic map of part of southwestern Virginia... ......................... l0 9. General position of seas and lands in eastern U.S. during Carboniferous times ................... 11 10. Land and sea of part of Appalachian basin during Early Mississippian time ....................... 12 11. Cross-bedded quaftz sandstone of the Early Pennsylvanian-age Lee Formation at Cumberland Gap ....-. 14 12. Watergapof theNewRivernearNarrows,Virginia .................. 14 15. A view westward TABLES l. 2. VIRGINIA'S COAL AGES S. O. BIRD ABSTRACT GENERAL GEOLOGY OF VIRGINIA'S COALS Virginia's coals lie in three distinct geologic settings: the KING COAL youngest coal is in Mesozoic-age basins of the Piedmont province (chiefly in the Richmond basin), in Early Mississip- The youngest coal deposits in Virginia and the first ones to pian-age rocks of the Valley and Ridge province, and in mainly be mined in the United States are from an area near Richmond, Pennsylvanian-age rocks of the Appalachian Plateaus prov- where several bituminous coal beds occur in Mesozoic-age rocks ince. The history of production follows this classification, but occupying a faulGformed basin @gure 1, Plate l). These coals development was related to population and geography rather were first mined commercially in I 748, and were mined continu- than to geology. Coal was first mined in the Richmond basin ously until 1904 when production ceased. Coal from this mea in the mid-1700s, in the Valley and Ridge province in the was being shipped fromHampton, Virginiato the NewYorkCity middle I 800s to the early 1 900s, and from the I 880s until today area as eady as 1758. Virginia coal was an important firel source in the plateaus province. along the Atlantic seabomd until about 1820, when extensive Coal forms from peat such as is present in the Great canal construction made Pennsylvania anthracite available to Dismal Swamp (southeastern Virginia and northeastern North areas formerly supplied by Virginia. The Richmond coalfield Carolina), which is a modern model of earlier coal swamps. became a major fuel source during the Civil War, but pmduction However, the plants and animals of today are much changed declined after the war, and was cut in half the year that the first from those that lived in the peat swamps of the "Coal Ages." shipments of coal left Tazewell County, in southwestern Vt- ginia, by rail in I 883. Production of Mesozoic-age coal declined sharply thereafter. INTRODUCTION Mesozoic-age coal was extacted using rnanual labor in underground mines from five separate mining districts in the Coal was the fuel of the industrial revolution and it is the fuel Richmond coalfield. The thickest coal was over 5Gfeet thick. but for the forseeable future. Long after oil and gas supplies have typically the coals mined were from 5 to l0 feet thick. Over the been exhausted, coal resources will remain. New uses are life of the field, over 8 million tons of coal was removed. The constantly being found for coal and old ones are being rediscov- Richmond coalfield is currently thought of as a viable coal-bed ered or renewed. Some coals are largely free of sulfur and methane resource. Resource estimates have not been made for therefore can be burned without giving off SO*. Fluidized bed coal of the same age in the Farmville basin to the west, where one experiments by the U.S. Department of Energy Show that sulfur- five-foot thick coal bed was mined for local use in the mid- 1800s. beming coals can bebumed in thepresenceof limestone to greatly Coal was produced commercially from the Valley coalfi elds, reduce SO" emissions. Coal can also be used as a "liquid" fuel (Figurc 1) lying in the area from Botetourt County to Smyth when mixed with water and detergents. Some of the research on County as early as I 860 and as late as I 993 . The coal that fueled this has been canied out by Atlantic Research and by United Coal the frigate Merrimac in its historic encounter with the Monitor Company (Bird, 1985). Further research at United Coal facilities was from the Merrimac coal bed in Montgomery County. The in Bristol, Virginia have been toward producing coke, diesel Merrimac bed with othercoal beds in Montgomery andPulaski fuels, and high-grade gasolines from coal in series of distillation Counties furnished the great bulk of Valley coal production. processes. Coal produces some 50 percent of the electricity Mining access to semianthracite and bituminous coals of the generated in Virginia and it is also used in cogeneration plants Valley is commonly severely limited, because in places the where heat and electricity are produced from steam generated by stratigraphic units containing them are intensely deformed. The burning coal. Coal contains methane, or natural gas. In places coals can be mined along strike in suitable places, but in the dip this gas is ahazard tomining, but the gas content can also be useful direction they plunge far below the surface, commonly over short as it is drawn off by drilling the coal to release the methane before lateral distances. The coal was mined in shafts in these areas. At or during mining. Operations producing gas from coal have been places the beds are displaced by faults. carried out for years in the Black Warrior basin of northcentral The 1996 value of coal produced in Virginia was $974.36- Alabama and by Island Creek Coal Company and Equitable million (Sweet and Nolde, In Press). All the coal mined in Resources Energy Company in southwestern Virginia to degas Virginia today is bituminous rank from the plateaus province, coal beds in Buchanan and Dickenson Counties. which includes all orparts of Buchanan, Dickenson, ke, Russell, Coke made from coal is required to make steel from iron. Scott, Tazewell, and Wise Counties. Of the counties, Buchanan Coal by-products, such as tar and pitch together with derived gas, is the leading producer and Wise is second. Some 95 percent of find many uses in the chemical, fertilizer, plastic, insecticide, and the state's coal resources are in the plateaus province, where dye industries. mining has been continuous since the 1880s, the time when Great quantities of coal from Virginia, West Virginia, and railroads wereextended intotheregion inordertomarketthecoal. Kentucky are loaded for export onto supersized ships at the port Demonstratedreserves forVirginiawereabout2.32-billion short terminals ofNewport News, which include the Dominion Termi- tons in January, 1995. nal completed in 1984. Virginia ranked eighth in annual coal Virginia's plateaus-province coal is mostly high- to low- production in the U.S. in 1995. volatile A. bituminous coal. Some of this coal is used as coke VIRGINIA DIVISION OF MINERAL RESOI.]RCES COAL FIELDS SOUTHWEST RICHMOND VALLEY 1€FJl3i \CAFFOLL "e*at ,/ li"^"'ff"it);,*j ;t ","*\ #*iffi PLAIN VALLEY AND RTDGE COASTAL PIEDMONT (TRIASSIC BAsll'lstl ) Figure 1. Physiographic provinces of Virginia and areas mined for coal. The fall line is at the PiedmonVCoastal Plain bundary.
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