What is coal?
Coal is a rock. It is usually black and can be shiny. The rock is sometimes flaky or dusty, and will often break very easily.
Coal is a sedimentary rock. This means it was deposited on the surface in a layer through a natural process. Layers of coal are called seams; layers of rock, strata.
Coal comes from trees and plants that once formed giant swampy jungles. When the plant life died, it did not rot away, but instead became buried by layers of sand and mud. Slowly over time, the layers of dead plants became buried deeper underground, and were squashed by the layers of sediment above. Over millions of years these layers of dead plants became seams of coal.
To learn more about what coal is, follow the pdf. below and read all of the scientific facts provided by the National Coal Mining Museum for England:
How is Coal Mined?
Coal is a sedimentary rock that was originally deposited over 300 million years ago. It is found in layers called seams. Because of their age, these seams are often found deep underground, but earth movements or erosion may bring them close to the surface. There were several different mines which were used to mine the coal. Examples of these mines included:
- Drift Mining
- Open Cast Mining
- Deep Mining
To learn the details of each of these mining styles, please follow the pdf. provided below, which was provided by our wonderful heritage partner, the National Coal Mining Museum for England.
Rocks and Minerals
Rocks are made up of many different minerals. Some rocks, like sandstone or limestone might only contain one type of mineral. Some rocks, like granite, contain many minerals.
Minerals are natural chemicals that are made through processes in the Earth’s crust. Some minerals can form as large crystals, but often they are found as smaller grains, like sand.
There are three different types of rock: sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous. To learn more about these types of rock, follow the pdf. below, provided by the National Coal Mining Museum for England.
To learn how to examine the properties of rocks, follow the pdf. below, which was also provided by the National Coal Mining Museum for England.