Analysis of Coal Samples from the Hazard District, Kentucky (Breathitt, Knott, Leslie, and Perry Counties and Other Parts of Letcher and Harlan Counties)

Chemical and petrographic doto ore presented for 132 samples of cool collected in the Hazard District, eastern Kentucky. These data include sample-site locations, sampling conditions, stratigraphic position, megoscopic description of the cool, air-drying loss, proximate and ultimate analyses, Btu content, forms of sulfur, initial deformation temperature, softening temperature, fluid temperature, free-swelling index, concentration of major, minor, and trace elements, and petrographic analyses

Analysis of Coal Samples from Licking River District, Kentucky (Elliott, Magoffin, Morgan, and Wolfe Counties and Parts of Menifee, Powell, and Rowan Counties)

Chemical and petrographic data ore presented for 41 samples of cool collected in the Licking River District, eastern Kentucky. These data include sample-site locations, sampling conditions, stratigraphic position, megoscopic description of the cool, air-drying loss, proximate and ultimate analyses, Btu content, forms of sulfur, initial deformation temperature, softening temperature, fluid temperature, free-swelling index, concentration of major- and minor-oxides and trace elements, and petrographic analyses

Analysis of Coal Samples from the Southwestern District, Kentucky (Clay, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, Lee, McCreary, Owsley, Whitley, and Parts of Bell, Clinton, Estill, Madison, Pulaski, Rockcastle, and Wayne Counties)

Chemical and petrographic data ore presented for 119 samples of cool collected in the Southwestern District, eastern Kentucky. The data include sample-site locations, sampling conditions, stratigraphic position, megoscopic description of the cool, air-drying loss, proximate and ultimate analyses, Btu content, forms of sulfur, initial deformation temperature, softening temperature, fluid temperature, free-swelling index, concentration of major- and minor-oxides and trace elements, and petrographic analyses

Analysis of Coal Samples from the Big Sandy District, Kentucky (Floyd, Johnson, Martin, and Pike Counties)

Chemical and petrographic data ore presented for 146 samples of cool collected in the Big Sandy District, eastern Kentucky. The data include sample-site locations, sampling conditions, stratigraphic position, megoscopic description of the cool, air-drying loss, proximate and ultimate analyses, Btu content, forms of sulfur, initial deformation temperature, softening temperature, fluid temperature, free-swelling index, concentration of major- and minor-oxides and trace elements, and petrographic analyses

Implications of Thermal Events on Thrust Emplacement Sequence in the Appalachian Fold and Thrust Belt: Some New Vitrinite Reflectance Data

Interpretation of existing geothermometry data combined with new vitrinite reflectance data, within the framework of a detailed composite tectonic setting, elucidates the evolution of structural sequencing of thrust sheets during the Alleghanian event in the Valley and Ridge Province in Virginia. That the Pulaski thrust sheet preceded the Saltville thrust sheet in the emplacement sequence, and that both reached thermal maxima prior to, or during, respective emplacement may be inferred from vitrinite and other geothermometry data. In contrast, the Narrows and St. Clair thrust sheets probably each attained their thermal maximum after emplacement. New vitrinite reflectance data are consistent with CAI and other temperature-sensitive information heretofore ascertained in the Valley and Ridge Province and support previously established maximum temperatures of ca. 200°C for strata of the Saltville thrust sheet as young as Mississippian. Rmax values from Mississippian coals in the Price Formation of the Saltville sheet, beneath but near the Pulaski thrust, range from 1.61% to 2.60%. At the structural front of the fold and thrust belt, a single Mississippian coal sample from the Bluefield Formation yields an Rmax value of 1.35%. Those coals showing highest Rmax values are more intensely fractured with secondary minerals filling the fractures. Warm fluids introduced during tectonic events may have played at least as important a role as that of combined stratigraphic and tectonic burial

Analysis of Coal Samples from the Princess District, Kentucky (Boyd, Carter, Greenup, and Lawrence Counties and Part of Lewis County)

Chemical and petrographic data are presented for 42 samples of coal collected in the Princess District, eastern Kentucky. These data include sample-site locations, sampling conditions, stratigraphic position, megascopic description of the coal, air-drying loss, proximate and ultimate analyses, Btu content, forms of sulfur, initial deformation temperature, softening temperature, fluid temperature, free-swelling index, concentration of major, minor, and trace inorganic elements, and petrographic analyses

Analysis of Coal Samples from the Upper Cumberland District, Kentucky (Parts of Bell, Harlan, Letcher, and Whitley Counties)

Chemical and petrographic data ore presented for 57 samples of cool collected in the Upper Cumberland District, eastern Kentucky. These data include sample-site locations, sampling conditions, stratigraphic position, megoscopic description of the cool, air-drying loss, proximate and ultimate analyses, Btu content, forms of sulfur, initial deformation temperature, softening temperature, fluid temperature, free-swelling index, concentration of major- and minor-oxides and trace elements, and petrographic analyses

Rare Earth-Bearing Particles in Fly Ash Carbons: Examples from the Combustion of Eastern Kentucky Coals

Graphitic carbons from the combustion of bituminous coals and, perhaps, other coal ranks, tend to capture iron and a number of hazardous elements, including As, Hg, and Se. Rare earth elements in fly ashes occur in minerals, such as monazite, xenotime, and davidite. They also occur in sub-nm particles, probably in a mineral form, within the Al–Si glass on the investigated fly ashes. Just as graphitic carbons can capture Fe and hazardous elements, the carbons surrounding the fly ash glass and magnetic particles captures or encapsulates a broad suite of rare earth elements

Ultrafine Mineral Associations in Superhigh-Organic-Sulfur Kentucky Coals

Two high-organic-sulfur Kentucky coals, the eastern Kentucky River Gem coal and the western Kentucky Davis coal, are examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), both including elemental analysis by energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). From the SEM–EDS analysis, it is observed that the western Kentucky coal had areas with Pb and Cd in addition to the expected Fe and S and the eastern Kentucky coal had individual Fe–S-rich areas with La and Ni and with Si, Al, Cr, Ni, and Ti. TEM and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) analyses demonstrate that anglesite with a rim of Pb-bearing amorphous Fe-oxide occurs in the western Kentucky coal. Melanterite, an Fe-sulfate, with minor Al, Si, and K EDS peaks, suggests that clay minerals may be in close association with the sulfate, is also detected in the coal. A polycrystalline metal in the eastern Kentucky sample with a composition similar to stainless steel is adjacent to an Al-rich shard. Euhedral pyrite grains surrounded by kaolinite and gibbsite are detected. Overall, it is noted that element associations should not be assumed to be organic just because minerals cannot be seen with optical microscopy or with standard bulk analytical techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD)

Compositional Variations in the \u3cem\u3eFire Clay Coal Bed\u3c/em\u3e of Eastern Kentucky: Geochemistry, Petrography, Palynology, and Paleoecology

Bench samples of the Fire Clay coal bed, collected from 28 localities in a study area of eight 7.5-minute quadrangles in the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field, were analyzed geochemically, petrographically, and palynologically to determine any spatial or temporal trends among the studied parameters. At most sample sites the Fire Clay is split by a flint-clay parting of probable volcanic origin. The upper bench of the Fire Clay coal generally is thick, laterally continuous, low in ash yield and sulfur content, has a moderate to high calorific value, and is high in total vitrinite content. In contrast, the lower bench generally is thin, laterally discontinuous, moderate to high in ash yield and sulfur content, has a low to moderate calorific value, and has high liptinite and inertinite contents. Rider coals, present at two sample sites, are thin, laterally discontinuous, and high in both ash yield and sulfur content. Fire Clay coal extracted from underground mines typically contains roof and floor rock, which is separated by conventional coal-cleaning methods. The analytical data were grouped into categories of increasing coal purity to approximate a cleaned coal product. Results indicate that some parameters (Btu and total vitrinite content) increase along a trend from higher ash to lower ash coal. Other parameters (ash yield, total sulfur content, and several minor elements) decrease. Still others (thickness and total moisture) show no trend at all. A comparison of these data with previously accumulated data from 64 cleaned coal samples (collected from preparation plants) confirms these trends. This is significant, especially with regard to Titles III and IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, in that many deleterious components of coal appear to be removable by conventional coal-cleaning methods prior to combustion in an industrial furnace. Examples of these undesirable constituents include pyrite, chromium, cobalt, and nickel. The Fire Clay coal was grouped into four compositional categories for paleoecological interpretation. The categories are (1) a Lycospora-dominant group with high vitrinite contents that is interpreted to have formed in areas of the Fire Clay paleomire that were kept very wet, to the point of having standing water, a majority of the time (this group probably developed in areas of the mire that were dominantly rheotrophic and planar); (2) a mixed-palynoflora group with high vitrinite contents that is defined by having a more diverse palynoflora than the first group (increased percentages of small lycopsid, fern, and calamite spores), and high percentages of vitrinite (this group is also interpreted to have formed in areas that were very wet most of the time, and were predominantly rheotrophic and planar); (3) a mixed-palynoflora group with moderate to low vitrinite contents that contains increased percentages of inertinite compared to the first two groups and a diverse palynoflora, possibly because the mire became more ombrotrophic and domed; and (4) a mixed-palynoflora group with high ash yield whose palynoflora is marked by various mixtures of lycopsids (trees and small forms), ferns (tree-like and small forms), calamites, and cordaite spores; samples defined by this group contain elevated percentages of liptinite and inertinite macerals, as well as higher ash yields. The conditions under which group 4 formed probably were rheotrophic and planar. Group 4 defines all the samples in the lower bench of the Fire Clay coal bed