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Bituminous coal production in the Appalachian basin--Past, present, and future

Metadata also available as - [Outline] - [Parseable text] - [DIF]

Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Bituminous coal production in the Appalachian basin--Past, present, and future
Abstract:
This report on Appalachian basin coal production consists of four maps and associated graphs and tables, with links to the basic data that were used to construct the maps. Plate 1 shows the time (year) of maximum coal production, by county. For illustration purposes, the years of maximum production are grouped into decadal units. Plate 2 shows the amount of coal produced (tons) during the year of maximum coal production for each county. Plate 3 illustrates the cumulative coal production (tons) for each county since about the beginning of the 20th century. Plate 4 shows 1996 annual production by county. During the current (third) cycle of coal production in the Appalachian basin, only seven major coal-producing counties (those with more than 500 million tons cumulative production), including Greene County, Pa.; Boone, Kanawha, Logan, Mingo, and Monongalia Counties, W.Va.; and Pike County, Ky., exhibit a general increase in coal production. Other major coal-producing counties have either declined to a small percentage of their maximum production or are annually maintaining a moderate level of production. In general, the areas with current high coal production have large blocks of coal that are suitable for mining underground with highly efficient longwall methods, or are occupied by very large scale, relatively low cost surface mining operations. The estimated cumulative production for combined bituminous and anthracite coal is about 100 billion tons or less for the Appalachian basin. In general, it is anticipated that the remaining resources will be progressively of lower quality, will cost more to mine, and will become economical only as new technologies for extraction, beneficiation, and consumption are developed, and then only if prices for coal increase.
  1. How should this data set be cited?

    U.S. Geological Survey, 1999, Bituminous coal production in the Appalachian basin--Past, present, and future: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map MF-2330, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -97.0
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -86.0
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 45.0
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 39.0

  3. What does it look like?

  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

    Beginning_Date:
    Ending_Date: 1996
    Currentness_Reference:
    The first coal production records date back to 1830. The last year for which this report uses statistics is 1996.

  5. What is the general form of this data set?

    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map

  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?

    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

      This is a Vector data set.

    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

      Horizontal positions are specified in geographic coordinates, that is, latitude and longitude. Latitudes are given to the nearest 0.000278. Longitudes are given to the nearest 0.000278. Latitude and longitude values are specified in Decimal degrees.

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum 1983.
      The ellipsoid used is GRS1980.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257222.

  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

    COUNTY
    The set of all counties in the Appalachian basin for which coal production information is available. (Source: self-evident)

    STATE
    Name of the State in which the entity resides (Source: ESRI software)

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the identification of the States in the Appalachian basin (Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 5-2).
    Codeset Source:U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology

    COUNTY
    County in which the entity resides. (Source: ESRI software)

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the identification of the counties in the Appalachian basin (Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 6-4).
    Codeset Source:U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology

    FIPS
    Three- or four-digit (numeric) county FIPS code (Source: ESRI software)

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the identification of the counties in States in the Appalachian basin (Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 5-2).
    Codeset Source:U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology

    MAX_YR
    Year of maximum production in a county

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:1996

    PRODMAXYR
    Amount of maximum production during any one year in a county

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:35525

    TOTAL
    Cumulative production in a county

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:1406436

    LABEL
    Text used to label each county (Source: FIPS 6-4)

    Z996
    Production in each county in 1996

    Range of values
    Minimum:0
    Maximum:35598

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

    Robert C. Milici
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Mail Stop 956, National Center
    U.S. Geological Survey
    12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
    Reston, VA 20192

    (703) 648-6541 (voice)

Why was the data set created?

Provide an overview of coal production from the Appalachian basin, by county.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

    Crowell (1995) (source 1 of 12)
    Crowell, D.L., 1995, History of the coal-mining industry in Ohio: Ohio Division of Geological Survey Bulletin 72.

    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Coal production statistics for Ohio

    Currens and Smith (1977) (source 2 of 12)
    Currens, J.C., and Smith, G.E., 1977, Coal production in Kentucky, 1790-1975: Kentucky Geological Survey Information Circular 23.

    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Coal production statistics for Kentucky between 1790 and 1975.

    Eavenson (1942) (source 3 of 12)
    Eavenson, H.N., 1942, The first century and a quarter of American coal industry: Waverly Press, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland.

    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution:
    History of coal production in the United States between 1800 and 1925.

    DOE/EIA (1977) (source 4 of 12)
    Administration, Energy Information , 1979, Energy Data Report, Coal--Pennsylvania anthracite for the calendar year, 1977: Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration Report DOE/EIA-0019(77).

    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Coal production statistics for Pennsylvania in 1977.

    DOE/EIA (1996) (source 5 of 12)
    Administration, Energy Information , 1996, U.S. coal reserves, a review and update: Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration Report DOE/EIA-0529(1995).

    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Statistics on coal reserves in the U.S.

    Hibbard (1990) (source 6 of 12)
    W.R. Hibbard, Jr., 1990, Virginia coal, an abridged history: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research, Blacksburg, Virginia.

    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Statistics on coal production in Virginia

    Energy Information Adminsitration (1979-1993) (source 7 of 12)
    Administration, Energy Information , 1979-1993, Coal production [1977-1992]: Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration Report DOE/EIA-0118(77) to DOE/EIA-0118(92).

    Other_Citation_Details: Published as individual volumes
    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Coal production statistics for the years 19977 through 1992

    Energy Information Administration (1994-1997) (source 8 of 12)
    Administration, Energy Information , 1994-1997, Coal industry annual [1993-1996]: Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration Report DOE/EIA-0584(93) to DOE/EIA-0584(96).

    Other_Citation_Details: Published as individual volumes.
    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Coal production statistics for 1993 through 1996

    U.S. Geological Survey (1907-1926) (source 9 of 12)
    U.S. Geological Survey, 1908-1926, Mineral resources of the United States [1907-1923]: U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C..

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Published as individual volumes. Continued by U.S. Bureau of Mines, Mineral resources of the United States
    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Coal production statistics for 1907 through 1923

    U.S. Bureau of Mines (1927-1933) (source 10 of 12)
    U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1927-1933, Mineral resources of the United States [1924-1931]: U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C..

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Published as individual volumes. Continued as U.S. Bureau of Mines Minerals yearbook
    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Coal production statistics for 1924 through 1931.

    U.S. Bureau of Mines (1933-1978) (source 11 of 12)
    U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1933-1978, Minerals yearbook [1932-1976]: U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C..

    Other_Citation_Details: Published as individual volumes
    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Coal production statistics for 1932 through 1976

    Averitt (1975) (source 12 of 12)
    Averitt, Paul, 1975, Coal resources of the United States, January 1, 1974: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1412.

    Type_of_Source_Media: Paper
    Source_Contribution: Coal resource information for the United States in 1974.

  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

    Date: 1997 (process 1 of 3)
    Data was entered into an EXCEL spreadsheet by year and county and a ".dbf" file was generated from it.

    Data sources used in this process:

    • Crowell (1995)
    • Currens and Smith (1977)
    • Eavenson (1942)
    • U.S. Bureau of Mines (1933-1996)
    • U.S. Bureau of Mines (1927-1933)
    • U.S. Geological Survey (1907-1926)
    • Energy Information Administration (1994-1997)
    • Energy Information Administration (1979-1993)
    • Hibbard (1990)
    • DOE/EIA (1996)
    • DOE/EIA (1977)
    • Averitt (1975)

    Date: 1997 (process 2 of 3)
    County polygon coverage was converted to a .shp file for use in ArcView. The U.S. Geological Survey 1:2,000,000-scale Digital Line Graph (DLG) file was used.

    Date: 1998 (process 3 of 3)
    The .dbf file containing data by year and county was combined with the county polygon coveragte (.shp file) in ArcView.

  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?

    Production data was entered in tabular form based on mining records from the U.S. Geological Survey, State geological surveys, the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. The data in this report are as accurate as the source records. For each county, the following information was selected: (1) year of maximum coal production, (2) maximum annual coal production, (3) cumulative production data, and (4) current (1996) production.

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

    Data is accurately positioned by county.

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

    Data is complete.

  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

    Data is consistent from county to county.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints: None
Use_Constraints:
Hard copies of this map, or other uses of the data, must credit source(s) of data.

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)

    U.S. Geological Survey
    USGS Information Services
    Denver, CO 80225-0046
    United States

    1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) (voice)

  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

    USGS Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2330

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    Although all data and software published on this map have been used by the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the U.S. Geological Survey as to the accuracy of the data and related materials or the functioning of the software. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of these data, software, or related materials.
    Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 12-Feb-2002
Metadata author:
Robert C. Milici
U.S. Geological Survey
Mail Stop 956 National Center
Reston, VA 20192

(703) 648-6541 (voice)

Metadata standard:
Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)

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