mANVIL
coal1
Coal comes from prehistoric peat swamps being compressed over millions of years into lignite. Compression over millions of additional years causes the lignite to become bituminous or "soft coal". Millions of years of compression after that and you have what is called anthracite coal or "hard coal" and is the highest grade of coal available. It's a fairly rare phenomenon with the majority of the United States' anthracite coal coming from a 400 square mile area spanning 6 counties in Northeast Pennsylvania. Due to the extreme age of the coal it's also the deepest, with some anthracite mines routinely mining coal well over 2000 feet underground. With mines that deep, drainage and flooding were always an issue. The photo here is of one of the deepest anthracite mines in the area which intersected 6 different veins and is a little over 110 years old. The trench on the left ran through the mine for almost 2 miles before draining into the Lackawanna River. This was by far the largest coal mine we've ever been in and we barely scratched the surface having walked past 30+ different intersections. Keeping our bearings became difficult. Gradual down slopes in the mine caused us to get off course and onto different levels without realizing it. Sometimes the ceiling came down to just 4ft and we were cramped and hunched over trying to find our way back to the primary tunnel. The mine itself closed a little over 60 years ago. Competition with other cheaper fossil fuels (natural gas, oil and easier to extract "soft coal") eventually spelled the end for the majority of anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania.
coal1
Coal comes from prehistoric peat swamps being compressed over millions of years into lignite. Compression over millions of additional years causes the lignite to become bituminous or "soft coal". Millions of years of compression after that and you have what is called anthracite coal or "hard coal" and is the highest grade of coal available. It's a fairly rare phenomenon with the majority of the United States' anthracite coal coming from a 400 square mile area spanning 6 counties in Northeast Pennsylvania. Due to the extreme age of the coal it's also the deepest, with some anthracite mines routinely mining coal well over 2000 feet underground. With mines that deep, drainage and flooding were always an issue. The photo here is of one of the deepest anthracite mines in the area which intersected 6 different veins and is a little over 110 years old. The trench on the left ran through the mine for almost 2 miles before draining into the Lackawanna River. This was by far the largest coal mine we've ever been in and we barely scratched the surface having walked past 30+ different intersections. Keeping our bearings became difficult. Gradual down slopes in the mine caused us to get off course and onto different levels without realizing it. Sometimes the ceiling came down to just 4ft and we were cramped and hunched over trying to find our way back to the primary tunnel. The mine itself closed a little over 60 years ago. Competition with other cheaper fossil fuels (natural gas, oil and easier to extract "soft coal") eventually spelled the end for the majority of anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania.