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Questions tagged [coal]

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3 votes
1 answer
83 views

What is the climate footprint of burning lignite coal - once you account for the athmosheric cooling effect of sulfur dioxide?

Sulfur oxides have a strong but short lasting athmosheric cooling effect. Vulcanic eruptions provide test of that. Lignite or "brown coal" has a reputaion as a paricularly "dirty" ...
Hannes's user avatar
  • 221
7 votes
1 answer
828 views

Is there likely to be coal under the Sahara?

In Pangaea, northern Africa would have had humid onshore winds from the Tethys Ocean, making dense vegetation/rainforest biome likely. Consequently, would we be likely to find coal underneath the ...
Miner_Glitch's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
257 views

When is the carbon stored in fossil fuels released back to the atmosphere under natural conditions?

On which time scale is the carbon stored in petroleum and black coal released back to the atmosphere under natural conditions? Exploiting fossil fuels and burning them releases the carbon today, but ...
Hans-Peter Stricker's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
59 views

Can Hydrocarbons be beneficial? [duplicate]

Do these “fossil fuels” underground help maintain homeostasis in microbial ecosystem or aid in the growth of flora etc? Or are these substances: coal, animal remains and natural gas detrimental even ...
Science nerd's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
261 views

What is oldest known coal source?

I read coal form in all geologic times but what is oldest know coal source?
Châu's user avatar
  • 141
7 votes
4 answers
578 views

Where did all the CO₂ come from that was deposited as coal during the Carboniferous?

During the Carboniferous, vast deposits of coal (or peat at that time) were created because – as far as I understand – decomposition of wood (white rot?) was not yet "invented" at that time. This ...
emacs drives me nuts's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
39 views

What is the origin of cleating in coal?

Why do some coals show cleating and some not? Is cleating in coal related to coal's plant source or depositional process or post depositional processes?
Muharrem Yavuz's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
2k views

What is the most important source of natural gas? Coal, oil or other?

By heat and pressure, both coal and oil can produce gas. But what is the most important substance for gas? Is there a relation to the amounts of marine organism (sea life) which died and the amount of ...
Marijn 's user avatar
  • 2,543
1 vote
1 answer
151 views

Coal fires affecting seismic activity, and also volcanoes

Can coal fires cause earthquakes to happen, or possibly prevent or postpone earthquakes? Also can coal fires trigger(or prevent) volcanic eruptions by affecting flow of magma underground or by some ...
Richard Peterson's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
317 views

Open Mining facility/operation GIS data

Wondering if there is any GIS data available for mining operations in any places in the world. I looked here but didn't find much: https://catalog.data.gov/dataset?tags=mines https://www.eia.gov/...
Lance Pollard's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
237 views

Roughly how much Co2 is generated per kWh of electricity generated [closed]

I’m interested to know how much Co2 is generated by a coal fired power station to produce 1kWh of electricity for electrical grid
ben's user avatar
  • 91
8 votes
1 answer
263 views

Could diamonds be formed from coal?

Diamonds are predominately formed in cratons and brought to the surface in kimberlite pipes. However, it seems theoretically possible that diamonds could form at either subduction zones or from ...
user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
4k views

Coal self-heating and spontaneous combustion, how does this happen?

I finally broke down and read the Wikipedia article on spontaneous combustion and I was surprised to see how serious of a problem this can be. Wet hay, oily rags, there really are exothermic reactions ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 6,904
2 votes
3 answers
3k views

Petroleum and coal formation

I was wondering why are coal and petroleum being both fossil fuels are found at different places i.e. coal at land and petroleum at sea.
geeky me's user avatar
  • 121
3 votes
2 answers
132 views

Is there a risk with putting out smouldering underground coal reserves? [closed]

According to this Discovery News video about Centralia Pennsylvania and other underground coal fires, there are many smouldering underground coal reserves making the land above it uninhabitable to ...
Timothy's user avatar
  • 318
6 votes
4 answers
11k views

Why is coal classified as a sedimentary rock?

Something just clicked in my head today. Rocks, by the definition I was taught, are composed of minerals which in turn are by definition not organic, so they are or were not alive. However. Coal, ...
Lucian09474's user avatar
  • 1,932
12 votes
1 answer
375 views

How many joules are required to mine a unit of coal?

Coal is still a major source of energy for generation of electricity. So how much energy is used to extract a unit (tonne/kilogram etc) of coal? And thus what is the efficiency of coal as a source of ...
Cycling Engineer's user avatar