Geologic controls on thermal maturity patterns in Pennsylvanian coal-bearing rocks in the Appalachian basin

Paleoenvironmental analysis of the Glenalum Tunnel coal and roof rock, southern West Virginia—Implications for sulfur origin and trends

“…Eleven sedimentary facies have been distinguished from 50 outcrops in Kanawha, Boone, and Logan Counties using lithology, sedimentary structures, body and trace fossils, paleocurrents, and facies geometry (Martino, 1994(Martino, , 1996, and are summarized here as follows: Ruppert et al, 2010) show that the coal in the mine has a vitrinite reflectance of 1.0% (VR), equating to the upper range of high-volatile A bituminous rank. The Glenalum Tunnel coal is medium-volatile bituminous rank on and to the east of the 1.1% (VR) isograd (ASTM, 1995f).…”

On the fundamental difference between coal rank and coal type

“…The notion of hydrothermal influences on coal metamorphism generally did not gain traction until the 1980s with the observations of Oliver (1986Oliver ( , 1992. Just within the Appalachians, connections between the flow of thermal fluids and coal metamorphism were made with respect to the Pennsylvania Anthracite Fields (Bayan and Hower, 2012;Daniels et al, , 1994Daniels et al, , 1996Harrison et al, 2004;Hower and Gayer, 2002;Hower et al, 1993;Juster et al, 1987;Ruppert et al, 2010); western Pennsylvania bituminous coals (Zhang and Davis, 1993); the Valley Fields, Virginia (Lewis and Hower, 1990); and the Central Appalachian bituminous coals (Collins, 1993;Evans and Battles, 1999;Goldhaber et al, 2003;Hearn et al, 1987;Hower and Rimmer, 1991;Ruppert et al, 2010;Sakulpitakphon et al, 2004); and Alabama (Pashin et al, 1990;Winston, 1990).…”

“…Tectonically-driven geothermal fluids may also play an important role in coalification (Bayan and Hower, 2012;Gresley, 1896;Han et al, 1996;Hower and Gayer, 2002;Hower et al, 1993;Oliver, 1986Oliver, , 1992Ruppert et al, 2010;Uysal et al, 2000;Yang et al, 1996; among others). The amount of time necessary to achieve a particular level of coal rank varies from less than a year in contact metamorphism to perhaps 10 6 -10 7 years for regional metamorphism (Bostick, 1979;Hood et al, 1975;Karweil, 1956).…”

Gas Content Evaluation of Coalbed Methane Reservoir in the Fukang Area of Southern Junggar Basin, Northwest China by Multiple Geophysical Logging Methods

“…Burial depth is another important gas controlling factor [40]. The burial depth of coals controls the coalification and gas generation [41]. Increasing burial depth can prevent gas dissipation.…”