Mined Areas of the Pocahontas No. 3 Coal Bed

Title: Mined Areas of the Pocahontas No. 3 Coal Bed
Abstract:: This dataset is a polygon coverage of the mined areas of the Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed. The polygons are subdivided into 3 categories. These categories are areas where resources are mined underground, areas where resources are mined on the surface, and areas where resources are not mined.
This map is one of many Geographic Information System (GIS) products of the National Coal Assessment that is being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with State geological surveys and other Federal and State agencies. The Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed occurs within the Pocahontas Formation (Lower Pennsylvanian) and underlies all or parts of Wyoming, McDowell, Raleigh, Summers, Mercer, Greenbrier, Logan, and Mingo counties in West Virginia, and parts of Wise, Dickinson, Buchanan, and Tazewell counties in adjacent Virginia, an area within the central part of the Appalachian Plateau physiographic province. The eastern limit of the coal bed is along the Allegheny structural front, where the bed is either folded to vertical, overturned to the northwest, or covered by thrust sheets in the western part of the Valley and Ridge Province. The western limit of mineable coal is in the subsurface and was selected at the 14-inch isoline. Geologically, the extent of the Pocahontas Formation defines the Pocahontas basin, which is a local depocenter, or sub-basin, within the east-central part of the Appalachian basin. The Pocahontas consists mostly of sandstone, siltstone, and shale. Several significant coal beds, named Pocahontas No. 1 to Pocahontas No. 7, occur within the formation. Of these, the Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed contains the greatest resources of high quality coking coal. In general, the Pocahontas Formation accumulated as a series of northwestward prograding delta lobes that are fringed on the west (seaward) by quartzose sandstone sand bodies (orthoquartzites) interpreted as bars or barriers. Structurally, the Pocahontas basin lies at the western margin of the folded and faulted Appalachians.
This map is the first in a series on the Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed, which will include geologic structure, coal bed isopach, and coal quality maps
This metadata file deals exclusively with the 'Mined Out' coverage of the Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed. The data set is officially known as C9104MO.
The extent of the mined areas was compiled from two different, depending upon the region. In Virginia, the Va. Division of Mineral Resources provided computer-aided design files in DXF format (1997). In West Virginia, 7.5 minute quad unpublished manuscript maps from the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey (released 1990) were digitized.

Value	Definition
101	NOT MINED; indicates Pocahontas No. 3 coal IS NOT mined out (either coal remaining or no original coal resource)
103	SURFACE MINED; indicates Pocahontas No. 3 coal IS surface mined;
106	UNDERGROUND MINED; indicates Pocahontas No. 3 coal IS undergound mined;

Value

Definition

101

NOT MINED; indicates Pocahontas No. 3 coal IS NOT mined out (either coal remaining or no original coal resource)

103

SURFACE MINED; indicates Pocahontas No. 3 coal IS surface mined;

106

UNDERGROUND MINED; indicates Pocahontas No. 3 coal IS undergound mined;

Data format:	Polygonal mined area coverage in format ArcInfo export (version 7.1.1) Size: 391 kilobytes
Network links:	<http://pubs.usgs.gov/prof/p1625c/CHAPTER_H/ChapHmined_out.zip>

Data format:

Polygonal mined area coverage in format ArcInfo export (version 7.1.1) Size: 391 kilobytes

Network links:

<http://pubs.usgs.gov/prof/p1625c/CHAPTER_H/ChapHmined_out.zip>

Mined Areas of the Pocahontas No. 3 Coal Bed

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