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The Powder River Basin spanning the Montana — Wyoming border is the single largest source of coal mined in the United States. The region contains one of the largest deposits of coal in the world. The region covers southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming and is about 120 miles east to west and 200 miles north to south. The basin is so named because it is drained by the Powder River. Major cities in the area include Gillette and Sheridan, Wyoming and Miles City, Montana. This area of the U.S. is very sparsely populated and is known for its rolling grasslands and arid climate. Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by coal mining, either underground mining or open-pit mining (surface mining). ... Official language(s) English Capital Helena Largest city Billings Area  Ranked 4th  - Total 147,165 sq mi (381,156 km²)  - Width 255 miles (410 km)  - Length 630 miles (1,015 km)  - % water 1  - Latitude 44°26N to 49°N  - Longitude 104°2W to 116°2W Population  Ranked... Official language(s) English Capital Cheyenne Largest city Cheyenne Area  Ranked 10th  - Total 97,818 sq mi (253,348 km²)  - Width 280 miles (450 km)  - Length 360 miles (580 km)  - % water 0. ... Powder River The Powder River is a a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately 375 mi (603 km) long in the southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming in the United States. ... Gillette is a city located in Campbell County, Wyoming. ... Sheridan is a city in Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. ... Miles City is a city in Custer County, Montana, United States. ...

The low sulfur and ash content of the coal in the region makes it very desirable. Much of the output of the basin's mines is used to fire power plants, east of the Rocky Mountains for generating electricity. In recent years over 350 million tons of coal have been mined annually, more than 25% of the total U.S. production. More than eighty train loads of coal, which vary in size from 125 to 150 cars, are shipped from Wyoming mines each day. General Name, Symbol, Number sulfur, S, 16 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 16, 3, p Appearance lemon yellow Atomic mass 32. ... Fly ash (also known as a coal combustion product, or CCP) is the finely divided mineral residue resulting from the combustion of powdered coal in electric generating plants. ... Lightning strikes during a night-time thunderstorm. ...

It has been estimated that Powder River Basin coal deposits contain over 800 billion tons of coal. The thickness of the coal seams in the region ranges up to 200 feet (60 m) and averages nearly 80 feet.

Recent controversy surrounds the extensive coal bed methane extraction in the region. In the last decade, nearly 7000 of these wells have been drilled. Extracting the gas requires water to be pumped to the surface in order to release the gas trapped in the coal seam. While most of the water is successfully utilized in agriculture production such as livestock water and crop irrigation, some waters are naturally high in salinity. There has been controversy on how to best manage these saline waters. Coal bed methane extraction is a method for extracting methane from a coal deposit. ...

Geological History

The coal beds of the region began to form about 60 million years ago when the land began rising from a shallow sea. When the coal beds were forming the climate in the area was subtropical, averaging about 120 inches of rainfall a year. For some 25 million years, the basin floor was covered with lakes and swamps. Because of large area of the swamps, the organic material accumulated into peat bogs instead of being washed to the sea. Periodically the layers of peat were covered with sediments washed in from nearby mountains. Eventually the climate became drier and cooler. The basin filled with sediment and buried the peat under thousands of feet, compressing the layers of peat and forming coal. Over the last several million years, much of the overlying sediment has eroded away, leaving the coal seams near the surface.

The region also contains major deposits of uranium. General Name, Symbol, Number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air Atomic mass 238. ...

Power Plants fueled from Basin

The Fayette Power Project is a coal fired power plant located near La Grange, Texas in Fayette County, Texas. ... Gerald Gentleman Station (GGS) is Nebraskas largest generating plant. ... Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) is the largest electric utility in the state of Nebraska, serving all or parts of 91 (of 93) counties. ... Newton is a city located in Jasper County, Illinois, along the Embarras River. ... Jeffrey Energy Center (Jeffrey EC) is a sub-bituminous coal-fired electric energy center located seven miles (11 km) northwest of St. ... Robert W Scherer Power Plant is a coal fired power station at Macon, Georgia. ...

See also

• Thunder Basin National Grassland

Thunder Basin National Grassland is a National Grassland in Wyoming, USA. It is located in the Powder River Basin between the Bighorn Mountains and the Black Hills. ...

External links

• Wyoming coal mining
• Geological history