Abstract: Coal Resource Estimates in Kentucky -- Historical Perspective

COBB, JAMES C., and GERALD A. WEISENFLUH

Kentucky, like many other parts of the Nation, has a long history of government-supported coal resource evaluations. These resource evaluations are time consuming and costly to undertake and therefore they have typically occurred at 30 to 50 year intervcals. In some cases, the estimates prepared satisfied the objectives of the time and no further work was thought necessary. The impetus for successive attempts at improving coal resource estimates has been political, economic and technological events that dramatically affected the demand for coal.

Technology development -- steam locomotion, steel manufacturing, electricity generation -- has not only increased demand for coal; it has also resulted in greater demands for characterization of the quality of the resource. Political events, mainly times of war (actual or perceived), create an environment of uncertainty in which energy self-sufficiency is emphasized. These political and economic events have resulted in a continuing development of methodologies for coal resource estimation, that build on previous work and add new levels of precision and types of data.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90939©1997 AAPG Eastern Section and TSOP, Lexington, Kentucky