GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 90 March 1951 COKING-COAL DEPOSITS OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES By Louise R. Berryhill and Paul Averitt UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Oscar L. Chapman, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY W. E. Wrather, Director Washington, D. C. Free on application to the Geological Survey, Washington 25, D. C. CONTENTS Page Page Introduction . • . • • . 1 Colorado--Continued. Origin, classification, and distribution Delta, Gunnison, and Pitkin ·of coal. • . • . ••. 1 Counties, Colo. 13 Properties of coking coal. 4 Norwood ·field, Montrose and Coking-coal deposits . • . 5 San Miguel Counties, Colo. 14 Washington. • . • 6 Durango field, La Plata County, Wilkeson -Ca,rbonado-Fairfax field, Colo............... 14 Pierce and King Counties, Wash. 6 Raton Mesa field, Huerfano and Roslyn field, Kittitas County, Wash.. 6 Las Animas Comities, Colo., Montana .....•..•.......... 7 and Colfax County, N. Mex. 14 Great Falls field, Cascade, Fergus, New Mexico .............. 15 and Chouteau Counties, Mont. • . 7 Monero field, Rio Arriba County, Livingston-Trail Creek field, N.Mex..•......•.. 15 Gallatin and Park Counties, Mont.•• 8 Cerrillos field, Santa Fe County, Electric field, Park County, Mont. 8 N.Mex............ 15 Wyoming .......•.•...... 9 Carthage field, Socorro County, Kemmerer -Willow Creek field, N.Mex............ 16 Lincoln County, Wyo. 9 Oklahoma- Arkansas ...... 16 Rock Springs field, Sweetwater Henryetta district, Okmulgee County, Wyo. 10 County, Okla. • . 16 Cambria field, Weston Cou:hty, Wyo. 10 Southern part of the 01:1~ 1oma field, Utah .................. 11 Coal, Pittsburg, Atoka, Latimer, Sunnyside-Castlegate field, Carbon and Le Flore Counties . • • . • 17 County, Utah . 11 Western Arkansas field, Sebastian, Mount Pleasant field, Sanpete Crawford, Franklin, Logan, County, Utah . 12 Scott, Johnson, Pope, and Yell Kanab field, Iron County, Utah • 12 Counties. 18 Colorado .............. 12 Conclusion . • 19 Crested Butte field and vicinity, References. ·. • 19-20 ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Coal fields of the western United States showing coking-coal localities . ii 2. Heat value of coal of different ranks compared to proximate analyses 3 TABLES Table 1. Classification of coals by rank . 2 ... ,. f'• --------- _j\ COKING-COAL LOCALITIES 1 I -.,...I ". -- - . --,--l \.... .... """", '\,.. t ~·., ~ "Hffiffilili~"''lr 7 1. Wilkeson-Carbonado-Fairfax field ,A . )i \ 2. Roslyn field \ ~t-·1:~ ··- ------' i h ~I! 3 '"m00f.jjjj,h;;!!!!!!!!.:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i1 ~ ~< t ) . ,'II II; 4 t:> "'"'ii~,,,r_____ , 3. Great Falls field , t .. \@' 5~ ~ !!!n:fllir=;,!ilHilffii;; , '• / l!' • .r-- -- ·:: .., · · i'' 1 '-, 4. Livingston-Trail Creek field 5. Electric field (' '--,. A I L .. --- I ~ 0 ---~ ' t________I .., ______i 7 ~I, '!' ~~ - ';------------~ ~ ' 6. Kemmerer-Willow Creek field II ·--..... I 7. Rock Springs field I 6 ~, ' ~ 8. Cambria field I I --~-~ --- 9. Sunnyside-Castlegate field 1\ I: 10 I Q = I 10. Mount Pleasant field \ . 9 I ~I I,------ , . :It~AJ. ~ ~2 , I 11. Kanab field 12. Crested Butte field and \,\ vicinity I'-~-.!... 1~1k'15' r--1 .--~-----_____ 1 .I 6 I -----;, l 13. Norwood field w-17 I ~ 14. D~rango field ~ I 19~ ·: I I 15. Raton Mesa field -. i ~ ~ --1s I' I~ , -- go, , • 16. Monero field --,l II ~ : T I "".. ~ .. - ' ... l, 1 1\ 17. Cerrillos field EXPLANA ION ............ '-, I ,---,------- ~·' :,~::.-\ 18. Carthage field Anthraciteand semt ·anthracite '---.t_, " \ ~ (!:? • , e,~ ( .. , 19. Henryetta district - Low-volatile e ~'I L----, ' ~ bituminous cool JJ~() 20. Southern part of the Oklahoma ',, r---, I l field Medium- and high-volatile ' bituminous cool .. ~ \~ 4!: 21. Western Arkansas field .. .~- Subbituminous cool , 0 200 4 00 600 Mil11 IH1mmgJ Lignite Figure I.-Coal fields of the Wes·tern United States showing coking-:coal localities. COKING-COAL DEPOSITS OF THE.WESTERN UNITED STATES By Louise R. Berryhill and Paul Averitt INTRODUCTION During the process of compaction and coalification the beds of plant material undergo a series of physical The U. S. Geological Survey has been engaged and chemical changes, which, in general, result in a in a study of the geology and coal resources of the reduction of the amounts of moisture and volatile western United States for many years, and there­ matter present, and a corresponding increase in the sults of this work have been presented in numerous amounts of fixed carbon and heat value. The relative volumes of the regular series of Annual Reports, amount of ehange a coal has undergone, ·as measured Bulletins, Professional Papers, and Folios of the by variations in these components, is the basis for Geologic Atlas of the United States. In 1942, in the established classification of coal by rank. ·The response to the needs of the expanding western steel terms lignite, subbituminous coal, bituminous coal, industry, the U. S. Geological Survey began a pro­ and anthracite, thus describe stages in the coal form­ gram of mapping and re-examination of areas in the ing process. Each of these major ranks of coal is West believed to contain coal of coking quality, and further subdivided on the basis of chemical properties, at the same time the U. S. Bureau of Mines began as shown in table 1, which is a reproduction of the a program of drilling, sampling, and testing the standard classification used in the United States coal in these areas. As a result of this cooperative (Amer. Soc. Testing Materials, 1939, pp. 1-6). effort much new information has been obtained. Be­ Figure 2 shows graphically the relation between the cause many of the earlier geologic reports on the heat value, moisture, volatile matter, and fixed western coal fields are now out of print, and because carbon for the various ranks of coal defined in table 1. some of the more recent geologic studies of the areas containing coking coal are still in manuscript or pre­ . Consider~bly more than half of all coal used in liminary form, this circular has been prepared tq the manufacture of coke is of high-volatile A bitu­ summarize the information now available about the minous rank, followed in order of abundance of use occurrence and reserves of coal in a number of by low-volati~e and medium-volatile bituminous ranks. seleCted localities in the western states where the coal has coking properties. Although emphasis is Coal-bearing rocks are widely distributed west of placed primarily on the geology of the coal deposits, the Mississippi River, as shown by figure 1, which references to publications concerned with the techno­ also shows the distribution by rank. On a simple logical aspects of coking coal are cited where ap­ tonnage basis this area contains 70 percent of the propriate. total reserves of the United States, of which the larger part is of lignite, subbituminous,· and high­ The analyses of coal and generalized statements volatile C and B bituminous ranks, and is thus gen­ of coking properties included in this circular are erally unsuitable for the manufacture of coke. By based chiefly on information contained in publications contrast, the area east of the Mississippi River of the U. S. Bureau of Mines. Data included in the contains 30 percent of the total United States reserves, bulletins of the Washington Geological Survey and all of which is of bituminous or anthracitic rank. A in the mineral reports of the Oklahoma Geological hu·ge part of the eastern bituminous coal reserves have Survey have also been abstracted to provide a sum­ · cokina orooerties. This geographic distribution of mary of the occurrences of coking coal in these high- and low-rank coal is due in part to differences states. in age. Coal east of the Mississippi River, and in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and ORIGIN, ;CLASSIFICATION, AND DISTRIBUTION parts of Texas, is of Pennsylvanian age. On the other OF COAL hand, the coal in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast regions is of Cretaceous or Tertiary age. Only in Coal is composed of ancient plants and plant areas of mountain building and igneous activity, as fragments that accumulated slowly on the floors of locally in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, former marshes and swamps. As this material Utah, and Washington, has the younger coal in the increased in quantity year after year in the swampy West reached bituminous or occasionally anthracitic environment, the lower layers were compacted under rank. the weight of the upper layers and, in time, became peat, the initial_stage in the development of coal. The best metallurgical coke is made from high­ Later, the swamps were flooded by the sea and volatile A or medium-volatile bituminous coal, or from buried under vast accumulations of sand and silt blends of high- and low-volatile bituminous coal. washed in by streams flowing from nearby lands. Although the West possesses comparatively small The layers of peat thus became further compressed reserves of coal of these ranks ·suitable for manu­ under the weight of these sediments. Pressure and facturing coke, at least 21localities in the West are heat from movements of the earth's crust aided known to contain coal that has coking properties. locally in the process of compaction and coalification, Several of these localities produce most of the coal which has been going on slowly and continuously for used in the western steel industry. The growing a long period of time. industrialization of the West, and the accompanying 1 Table I. Classification of coals by ranka Legend: F.C. == Fixed.Carbon. V .M. - Volatile Matter. Btu. - British thermal units. Limits of Fixed Carbon or Requisite Physical Class Group Btu. Mineral-Matter-Free Properties I Basis 1. Meta-anthracite ................. Dry F .C .• 98 per cent or more {Dry V.M., 2 per cent or less) 2. Anthracite ...................... Dry F .C., 92 per cent or more and less than 98 per cent I. Anthracitic {Dry V.M.,8 per cent or less and more than 2 per cent) 3. Semianthracite .................. Dry F .C., 86 per cent or more N onagglomerating b..- and less than 92 per cent (Dry V .M., 14 per cent or less and more than 8 per cent) · 1.