Coal Mining And Its Effects

Coal is a type of fossil fuel that contains stored energy from dead plant matter. Coal is formed millions years ago in geologic time. When coal is burned the energy is used to heat water and generate electricity.

Coal, crude oil, and natural gas are all considered fossil fuels because they were formed from the buried remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.

Coal Bed Typically formed about 300 million years ago, flooding of dense forests and low-lying wetlands caused vegetation to be buried and over time, compressed. In combination with heat and protection from oxidation by more mud or acidic water the vegetation was converted to coal.

The energy we get from coal today comes from the energy that plants absorbed from the sun millions of years ago. When an area is to be mined, topsoil and subsoil are removed from the rock and so is another material, call overburden, to expose the bed of coal. All living plants give solar energy through photosynthesis. When plants die the energy gets out as the plants decay. The whole decaying process gets interrupted which prevents the release of the stored solar energy, then the energy stays locked in the coal. The plant material gets subjected to high temperatures and pressures which causes physical and chemical changes in the vegetation, transforming it into peat and then into coal. The formation of peat is the first step in the geological formation of fossil fuels such as coal. Peat plants is not only the first step for formation but they also capture CO2 itself. There are many effect to the environment when it comes to coal; an example is AMD which stands for Acid mine drainage; it includes the outflow of acidic water from coal mines or metal mines. Mines exposed rocks containing pyrite which reacts to water and air to form acid and dissolved iron and can easily wash into rivers and streams. Coal is a huge impact when it comes to hurting our

Coal has been around for 250 million years, but only has been used since the 1800’s first by trains and now for energy all around the world and many other things that people couldn't think of! Coal is a combustible sedimentary organic rock which is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It is formed from vegetation which has been consolidated between two other rock strata and altered by the combined effects of pressure and heat over millions of years to form coal seams. There are over 174,000 jobs in the U.S associated with coal and 83,000 of them are mining jobs, Coal miners have found many ways to extract coal from the ground which includes, surface mining, longwall mining, room and pillar mining, and underground mining. “Surface

Coal (n): A combustible black or dark brown rock consisting mainly of carbonized plant matter, found mainly in underground deposits and widely used as fuel. This little rock is what keeps 39% of our nation running. 10% of that coal comes from stripping the Appalachian mountain range of her beautiful peaks in a process called strip mining- or, more popularly, Mountaintop Removal. Coal is considered a non-renewable energy resource, meaning once it’s depleted, it will not return for millions of years. Once it's gone, it's gone. These non-renewable sources are found deep underground. Coal needs to be mined out, either by machine or by manual labor. The use of and the process in which we procure coal is a detriment to both the environment and the people in said environment. It is dangerous to the workers within the mines, the flora and fauna around the sites, and the surrounding communities.

Coal has been combusted for fuel for thousands of years. However it was not until the last few decades that the consequences of coal use have been fully realized and effort has been taken to lessen the severe environmental harm that can come from the combustion of coal. The fact of the matter is no matter how much we may dislike coal and the detrimental effects of it we, as a nation, depend on coal to live our lives. When we flip a switch and a light turns on we don’t give it a second thought but its not always that simple. Aside from coal’s significant contribution to climate change there have been other disasters stemming from coal and specifically the storage of contaminants extracted from coal combustion. One of the biggest man made environmental disasters of the millennia occurred just outside of Kingston, Tennessee in late 2008. This disaster though not as well publicized as many other disasters has been estimated to have released over 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash several times more contaminants by volume than the Exxon Valdeez oil spill in 1989 (Initial Emergency).

Coal is a black or dark brown combustible rock made primarily out of carbon. It was made a million years ago with fern plants and trees that died and fell in swamps. That prevented organisms from decaying completely, and due to heat and pressure for millions of years, coal was made. Coal fields were surrounding the industrial textile areas, which allowed the British to get access to the coal from the coal fields. When coal was discovered, it was also discovered for its advantage, which is that it is becoming a new energy source, improving the other sources from before.

Most people have a theory that the fossil fuels we have today are from the remains of dead dinosaurs. Which is in fact not true, but what is true is that these fossil fuels were at one time alive. They formed when prehistoric animals and plants died and were covered by rock and other plant growth (energy.gov 2014). Organic matter, along with varying temperatures and pressure worked together to produce the fossil fuels. Different types of fossil fuels were developed depending on how much pressure and what the temperature was involved at the time of the forming of these fossil fuels. (energy.gov 2014). These fossil fuels, what are today known mainly as coal, oil, and natural gas, were the different types of fossil fuels that were developed and which are the ones that are still being used today. According to the U.S. department of energy, oil and natural gas were formed from living things in the ocean, which were then buried under the ocean sediments. Later, the seas and oceans evaporated and they began to compress with heat and pressure under the silt, which is how oil was formed. With that, some of the oil continued to sink underground and kept compressing and causing pressure, which in turn produced natural gas. Coal formed from the dead remains of trees, ferns and other plants that lived 300 to 400 million years ago. In some areas, such as portions of what-is-now the eastern United States, coal was formed from swamps covered by sea water.

Coal mining has several negative effects on the health of the body that often times go unrecognized or just simply ignored. Many people have died from mining for various reasons such as the collapse of the mines as well as respiratory diseases caused by mining. Governments across the globe continue to implement regulations for the miners and populations surrounding the mines, but they have failed to eliminate health risks related to mining, which is nearly impossible. Mining permits used to be easy to obtain but under the Obama administration, the United States Environmental Protection Agency began conducting more reviews and now they have issued “comprehensive guidance” which was designed to strengthen requirements regarding mountain top removal (MTR) and other surface mining products (Holzman 2011). The more an organism is exposed to coal-mining, the more health problems they will face.

In how many ways can coal impact the environment? Coal is a type of rock that consists of plant matter, and it is one of the two fossil fuels. It is transferred into energy by the powder being burned, then the heat turns the water into steam and the high pressure heat turns a turbine, which is connected to a generator. Coal energy impacts the environment by, providing jobs, a stable energy source, and the pollution it gives off.

Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and varying amount of sulphur. Coal was form as decomposition took place in the absence of oxygen and much of the hydrogen content of the matter was eroded away, leaving a material rich in carbon. The material was compressed over the years by sand and dirt, leaving the form of a carbon known as coal. The different types of coals are Anthracite, bituminous, lignite, peat, coke, and charcoal. Coal is mined out of the ground and used to produce energy. However, they are many deaths, injuries, and sickness involved in mining coal.

Coal was formed during the Carboniferous Period, which was between 360- 290 million years ago. All of the coal originated from plant fossils. Around 400 million years ago plants once grew around fresh water swamps. As they eventually died, the plants fell and accumulate in the water. Many layers of sediments, mud and sand compressed the plants and allowed no oxygen, which results in no decomposition. Over time the layers get built up resulting in immense pressure and heat transforming each layer into different types of coal. For the substance to be considered coal it needed to contain less than 50% of ash- forming mineral matter. The four stages of coal are: Peat, Lignite (brown coal), Sub-bituminous coal, Bituminous coal and Anthracite.

Coal, a mineral I have discussed previously, is necessary to our everyday lives. Coal is an incredible source of energy; it heats our houses and buildings, and also fuels stoves. You may often wonder where this extremely useful mineral comes from. Coal does not just appear; it needs to be mined through a process which results in our being able to utilize it. Coal mining is fairly inexpensive, is carried out on a large scale and can be mined in either underground or surface mines.

Mountain top removal is the practice for removing the peaks from mountains to expose coal seams for extraction, and dumping the excess rocks and earth is then dumped into holler fills. This is accomplished by use of explosives and huge trucks and machinery. They are blowing off the top of mountains and dumping the rubble into the water. It was originally intended to be a rare practice, but now it is business as usual.