Pittsburgh coal seam

Extent of the Pittsburgh coal seam in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, excluding the deposit in Maryland. Note that the southwestern portion of the seam is of negligible economic importance.

The Pittsburgh coal seam is the thickest and most extensive coal bed in the Appalachian Basin;[1] hence, it is the most economically important coal bed in the eastern United States. The Upper Pennsylvanian Pittsburgh coal bed of the Monongahela Group is extensive and continuous, extending over 11,000 mi2 through 53 counties. It extends from Allegany County, Maryland to Belmont County, Ohio and from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania southwest to Putnam County, West Virginia.[2][3]

This coal seam is named for its outcrop high on the sheer north face of Mount Washington in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,[4] and it is considered to form the base of the upper coal measures of the Allegheny Plateau,[5] now known as the Monongahela Group.[6] The first reference to the Pittsburgh coal bed, named by H.D. Rodgers of the First Geological Survey of Pennsylvania,[7] was on a 1751 map.[8]

The section of the Pittsburgh seam under the Georges Creek Valley of Western Maryland is known as The Big Vein[9] This is isolated from the rest of the Pittsburgh seam by Savage Mountain (part of the Deer Park anticline), the Negro Mountain anticline, the Laurel Hill anticline, and the Chestnut Ridge anticline. Between these anticlines, the strata containing the Pittsburgh coal have been almost obliterated by erosion. The exception is a small remnant in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in the Berlin Syncline between Negro Mountain and Savage Mountain.[10]

  1. ^ Susan J. Tewalt, Leslie F. Ruppert, Linda J. Bragg, Richard W. Carlton, David K. Brezinski, Rachel N. Wallack, and David T. Butler, 2000. Chapter C - A Digital Resource Model of the Upper Pennsylvanian Pittsburgh Coal Bed, Monongahela Group, Northern Appalachian Basin Coal Region. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1625–C, 106 p. http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/p1625c/CHAPTER_C/CHAPTER_C.pdf
  2. ^ L. Ruppert, S. Tewalt, L. Bragg, Map Showing Areal Extent of the Pittsburgh Coal Bed and Horizon and Mines Areas of the Pittsburgh Coal Bed, U. S. Geological Survey Open file Report 96-280, 1997
  3. ^ Selected Geologic Factors Affecting Mining of the Pittsburgh Coalbed, United States Bureau of Mines, RI 8093, 1975
  4. ^ Geology of Point State Park, Pittsburgh Geological Society, no date.
  5. ^ Stratigraphy of the Bituminous Coal Field in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey No. 65, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1891. See Chapter III.
  6. ^ Raymond C. Moore and M. L. Thompson, Main Divisions of the Pennsylvanian Period and System, Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 33, 3 (March 1949) pages 279–280
  7. ^ White, I.C., 1898, The Pittsburgh coal bed: American Geologist, v. 21, p. 49–60
  8. ^ Eavenson, H.N., 1938, The Pittsburgh coal bed; its early history and development: American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers Transactions, v. 130, p. 1–55
  9. ^ C. M. Young, Percentage of Extraction on of Bituminous Coal with Special Reference to Illinois Conditions, Engineering Experiment Station Bulletin No. 100, University of Illinois, June 1917, page 90.
  10. ^ Geology and Mining Activities, Mine Drainage Pollution Abatement Project, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, no date, see Figs 1 and 8.