 Chemostratigraphic Approach to the Study of Resources’ Deposit in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (Poland)Ewa Krzeszowska ()
Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-21 Abstract: The Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB), located in southern Poland, is the major coal basin in Poland, and all technological types of hard coal, including coking coal, are exploited. It is also an area of high potential for coal-bed methane (CBM). Despite the increasing availability of alternative energy sources globally, it is a fact that the use of fossil fuels will remain necessary for the next few decades. Therefore, research on coal-bearing formations using modern research methods is still very important. The application of geochemistry and chemostratigraphy in reservoir characterization has become increasingly common in recent years. This paper presents the possibility of applying chemostratigraphic techniques to the study of the Carboniferous coal-bearing succession of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. The material studied comes from 121 core samples (depth 481–1298 m), representing the Mudstone Series (Westphalian A, B). Major oxide concentrations of Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 , P 2 O 5 , K 2 O, MgO, CaO, Na 2 O, K 2 O, MnO, TiO 2 , and Cr 2 O 3 were obtained using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry. Trace elements were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS). The geochemical record from the Mudstone Series shows changes in the concentration of major elements and selected trace elements, leading to the identification of four chemostratigraphic units. These units differ primarily in the content of Fe, Ca, Mg, Mn, and P as well as the concentration of Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, and Ti. The study also discusses quartz origin (based on SiO 2 and TiO 2 ), sediment provenance and source-area rock compositions (based on Al 2 O 3 / TiO 2 , TiO 2 /Zr, and La/Th), and paleoredox conditions (based on V/Cr, Ni/Co, U/Th, (Cu+Mo)/Zn, and Sr/Ba) for the chemostratigraphic units. Chemostratigraphy was used for the first time in the study of the Carboniferous coal-bearing series of the USCB, concluding that it can be used as an effective stratigraphic tool and provide new information on the possibility of correlating barren sequences of the coal-bearing succession. Keywords: chemostratigraphy; geochemistry; Upper Silesian Coal Basin; major elements; trace elements; provenance; paleoredox conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:3:p:642-:d:1328849 Access Statistics for this article Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao More articles in Energies from MDPI |
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