Coal is found in beds or seams interstratified with shales, clays, sandstones, or (rarely) limestones. It is usually underlaid by an underclay (a layer of clay containing roots of plants). The coal is removed by strip (surface) mining or underground mining methods (see coal mining).
The chief coal fields of the United States are the Appalachian (from N Pennsylvania into Alabama), the Eastern Interior (Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana), the Northern Interior (Michigan), the Western Interior (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas), the Rocky Mountain (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, and North Dakota), the Pacific (Washington), and the Gulf Coast (Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana). In Europe the chief coal-producing countries are Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. There are valuable coal fields in China, India, Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, and Korea but only a few in South America, mainly in Colombia.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.