U.S. Geological Survey
National Coal Resources Data System
U.S. Coal Resource Databases
The location, quantity, and physical and chemical characteristics of U.S. coal and coal-related deposits have been entered into databases developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. The National Coal Resources Data System (NCRDS) databases consist of two primary components: (1) areally-located data (USCOAL and NEWCOAL) that contain published and other publicly available coal resource data on an areal basis, such as state, county, township, or coal field, and (2) spatially-located data (COALQUAL) which contains basic point source coal data (e.g., field observations, sample analyses) including geodetic location; bed thickness; lithology; depth of burial; moisture, ash, and sulfur content; heat value; and major-, minor-, and trace-element content. (COALQUAL can be accessed at http://energy.er.usgs.gov/products/databases/CoalQual/index.htm. NEWCOAL is not accessible at this time.)
The majority of source documents cited in USCOAL and NEWCOAL are those in USGS Bulletin 1412 Remaining Coal Resources of the United States as of January 1, 1974 (Averitt, 1975). The exceptions to this are instances wherein more recent detailed reports have been published or older, but more detailed reports by the same author or agency are available.
Resource estimates have been entered into the NCRDS databases as they are presented in the source document. Production data have not been incorporated to bring the resource estimate up to date. This means that if the source document provides an estimate of original resources, that estimate is entered into NCRDS, or if the resources in the source document are "remaining in the ground as of January 1, 1959," they are stored in NCRDS as "remaining as of January 1, 1959."
This coal resource inventory may be updated or modified as new data for geographic areas become available or as previously assessed areas are restudied, reevaluated, and reestimated.
Although theses data have been subjected to rigorous review and is substantially complete, the USGS reserves the right to revise the data pursuant to further analysis and review. Furthermore, it is released on the condition that neither the USGS nor the United States Government may be held liable for any damages resulting from its authorized or unauthorized use.
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For information regarding this database, please contact Robert Matthias (firstname.lastname@example.org) or Sue Tewalt (email@example.com).
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This page can be found at http://energy.er.usgs.gov/products/databases/USCoal/index.htm
Created and maintained by the EERT WWW Staff.
Last updated 10 May 2006