coal mine methane and coalbed methane development in the ...

Coal Mine Methane And Coalbed Methane
Development In The Donetsk Region, Ukraine
The Visean stage, unconformably lies over Tournaisian and Upper Devonian deposits. They
are comprised of marine terrigenous-carbonate deposits ranging from 100 to 300 m thick.
The sediments of Upper Visean substage are present in nearly all the parts of the basin. In
the center of the basin, their thickness reaches 800 to 1,000 m and more. The upper part of
the section is a marine to alluvial deltaic system of aleurolites and sandstones interbedded
with minor coal. In the deepest part of the basin, the coal interbeds disappear and grade into
shale.
The sediments of Serpukhovian stage lie conformably over the Upper Visean deposits. At the
edge of the north-western portion of the basin, thickness varies from 50 to 150 m and to the
southeast it increases to 1,500 to 2,000 m. The Serpukhovian is comprised of argillites with
interbeds of occasional coal.
Middle Carboniferous deposits of this section are present in Bashkirian and Moskovian
stages. Their thickness from the edge of the basin to the axial depression zone increases in
a uniform manner and also in the direction of the Donbass region. They resemble upper
Visean and Serpukhovian formations in that they are dominated by fluvial marine deltaic
sequences. The sediments of Bashkirian stage are regionally unconformable over the
different horizons of Serpukhovian and Visean stages and in some places along the southern
edge lie directly upon Precambrian basement.
The lower Bashkirian substage includes a small group of sandstone and shale deposits
overlapped with marine shaley limestones with a thickness of between 50 to 400 m. The
upper Bashkirian is represented with cyclic, alluvial-deltaic and lagoon deposits of
interbedded of sandstones and clays with carbonate and coal beds. Its thickness varies from
100 to 1,500m. The shallow marine limestone layers repeat at regular intervals and may rest
directly on top of coal seams. The Moskovian stage continues with an alluvial deltaic and
lagoonal facies characterized by interbedded sandstones, shale, and coal. The thickness of
this stage ranges from 150m up to 1,800m.
The lower Serpukhonvian and the Moskovian successions are especially rich in coal 2 and
compose the majority of the mineable coal seams in the Donbass Basin. The coal seams in
these successions form the main focus of this report and their geology is discussed in more
detail in Section 1.3.
2 rd
Geologic Controls on Coalbed Occurrence in the Donets Basin, Privalov, Zhykalyak and Panova, 3 International Methane &
Nitrous Oxide Conference, Beijing, China. Sept.2003
Geologic Assessment and CMM/CBM Resource Base Analysis 1-6