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2007 GSA Denver Annual Meeting (28–31 October 2007)

Paper No. 1
Presentation Time: 8:10 AM

COAL FIRES: OPPORTUNITY FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MINERALOGY, PETROLOGY, STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE


STRACHER, Glenn B., Division of Science and Mathematics, East Georgia College, 131 College Circle, Swainsboro, GA 30401, SOKOL, Ellina V., Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Koptyuga, 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia, PRAKASH, Anupma, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, P.O. Box 757320, Fairbanks, AK 99775, HOWER, James C., Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky, 2540 Research Park Drive, Lexington, KY 40511, KUENZER, Claudia, Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Vienna University of Technology, Gusshausstrasse 27-29, A-1040 Wien, Vienna, Austria, PONE, J. Denis N., Energy and Geo-Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 228 Hosler Building, University Park, PA 16802, SCHROEDER, Paul, Department of Geology, University of Georgia, 210 Field Street, Athens, GA 30602, MASALEHDANI, M. Naze-Nancy, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université des Sciences et Technologie de Lille 1, UFR des Sciences de la Terre, Bâtiment SN5, Villeneuve d'Ascq, Lille, 59655, France, MARDON, Sarah M., University of Kentucky, Center for Applied Energy Research, 1401 Corporate Court, Henderson, KY 42420 and HIETT, John, Office of Mine Safety & Licensing, Center for Applied Energy Research, 1025 Capital Center Drive, PO Box 2244, Frankfort, KY 40601, stracher@ega.edu

Coal beds and culm banks are on fire from the Jharia coalfield in India to the Wuda and Rujigou coalfields in China, the Kuznetsk coal basin in Siberia, the Witbank and Sasolburg coalfields in South Africa, and the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains in the United States. The surficial manifestation of these fires includes mineral assemblages and coal tar that encrust gas vents and fissures, combustion metamorphic rocks, paralavas, toxic-gas components, and subsidence structures over volume-reduced coal.

Mineral assemblages and coal-tar deposits that encrust gas vents form by complex thermochemical processes including gas-altered substrate (GAS), gas-liquid-altered substrate (GLAS), and reactions among select gas components (SGC). The minerals may include millosevichite, salammoniac, gypsum, alunogen, pickeringite, tschermigite, godovikovite, and mascagnite, to name a few. Their nucleation is controlled by the chemistry of gas exhaled from a vent or fissure, the mineralogy of the substrate encountered by the exhaled gas, and the stratigraphic association of the vents and fissures with geologic structures including faults and folds.

Toxic-gas components including methane, carbon monoxide, benzene, and toluene that are exhaled from coal-fire gas vents and ground fissures pollute the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere while destroying floral and faunal habitats. The resonance time of such pollutants, e.g., in soil gas, is unknown as are the long-term effects associated with them.

In spite of their global occurrence both in the geologic past and at present, the study of underground- and surface-coal fires, “coal-fires science,” has not been at the forefront of geologic research. In fact, geoscience textbooks and courses devote little if any attention to the study of these fires. Consequently, coal-fires offer challenging opportunities for collaborative and innovative research in both environmental science and classical geology, with special emphasis in mineralogy, petrology, and structural geology.

Illustrations of rare mineral assemblages, explosion breccias, paralvas, gas vents juxtaposed along faults, differential weathering, and subsidence structures in addition to gas vent and soil-gas analyses all reveal the enormous potential for interdisciplinary-research awaiting the geoscientist.

Session No. 8

T7. The Environmental Geology and Geochemistry of Mineral Deposits: Best Practices for Effective Prediction, Mitigation, Closure, and Remediation I
Sunday, 28 October 2007: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 39, No. 6, p.30
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