Micropetrographic characteristics of certain Lower Permian coal seams of India with special reference to their mode of formation

Abstract

The Jharia coalfield represents one of the most important coal basins containing valuable resources of Lower Permian coking coals of the Lower Gondwana sequence in India. In this coalfield the upper seams from No. IX to XVIII of the Barakar Formation are known to comprise the best of the coking coals in the country. Based on e.g. disposition and development pattern, micropetrographic nature, as well as thickness and ash content, the entire sequence of these seams has been classified into three groups. From a detailed regional investigation on the different physico-chemical properties, an attempt has also bee made to visualize the depositional palaeoenvironment in the coal-forming swamps during the Early Permian. © 1990.