I'm from the southern Appalachians. Recently we took a trip to the "coal country" of eastern Kentucky. Specifically, Harlan County. I was amazed at how much the mountains there look just like the mountains here minus the coal mines. I even saw thin seams of coal in highway cuts. My question is, why is there so much coal in the Appalachians there but not here in NC? The mountains appear the same and I'd assume they have a similar history.

1/2/2009 3:45:40 PM

the swamp was only so big

1/2/2009 3:53:19 PM

Because eastern Kentucky used to be underwater. See how ^ matches up (somewhat) with:



[/amateur geologist]

[Edited on January 2, 2009 at 4:04 PM. Reason : ]

1/2/2009 4:01:33 PM

Harlan County.... hell yes

1/2/2009 4:32:33 PM

^^Kind of got it right

The majority of those coal deposits can be traced back to the Pennsylvanian Period (about 345-285 MYA), when that midwestern area was made up of huge tracts of swampland and shallow seas. Coincidently, this was around the same time as the Alleghenian Orogeny which formed the Appalachains due to the collision of North America and Europe/Africa. So basically, the Appalachain Mountain belt was more developed through western NC at the time, while much of eastern Kentucky was a very low lying swampy area.

[/geologist]

maybe this will help:


[Edited on January 2, 2009 at 4:54 PM. Reason : added a picture]

1/2/2009 4:52:55 PM

wow

1/2/2009 5:35:06 PM

Prolly the best answered technical question EVER in the history of Tdub.

Plane won't take off!

1/2/2009 6:06:48 PM

^^^pretty much. (that's a good mea 101 answer.)
^uh, seriously?

my work here is done.


(also, if you look at the Appalachian mountains, you can trace similar terranes up through new york through newfoundland. the heavy coal areas are more in the "valley and ridge" sedimentary areas found more toward Tennessee.)

[Edited on January 2, 2009 at 10:14 PM. Reason : ]

[Edited on January 2, 2009 at 10:14 PM. Reason : ]

1/2/2009 10:13:43 PM