The Black Warrior Basin is a geologic

sedimentary basin Sedimentary basins are region-scale depressions of the Earth's crust where subsidence has occurred and a thick sequence of sediments have accumulated to form a large three-dimensional body of sedimentary rock. They form when long-term subsiden ...

of western

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

and northern

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in the United States. It is named for the Black Warrior River and is developed for

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

and

coalbed methane Coalbed methane (CBM or coal-bed methane), coalbed gas, coal seam gas (CSG), or coal-mine methane (CMM) is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States, Canada, Au ...

production, as well as for conventional oil and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

production. Coalbed methane of the Black Warrior Basin has been developed and in production longer than in any other location in the United States. The coalbed methane is produced from the Pennsylvanian Pottsville Coal Interval.Alabama State Oil and Gas Board; Fields & Pools Database
/ref> The Black Warrior basin was a

foreland basin A foreland basin is a structural basin that develops adjacent and parallel to a mountain belt. Foreland basins form because the immense mass created by crustal thickening associated with the evolution of a mountain belt causes the lithosphere ...

during the

Ouachita Orogeny The Ouachita orogeny was a mountain-building event that resulted in the folding and faulting of strata currently exposed in the Ouachita Mountains. The more extensive Ouachita system extends from the current range in Arkansas and Oklahoma southe ...

during the Pennsylvanian and

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleo ...

Periods. The basin also received sediments from the Appalachian orogeny during the Pennsylvanian. The western margin of the basin lies beneath the sediments of the Mississippi embayment where it is contiguous with the Arkoma Basin of northern

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

and northeastern

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. Arsdale, Roy Van, 2009, ''Adventures Through Deep Time: The Central Mississippi River Valley and Its Earthquakes,'' Geological Society of America, Special Paper 455, Ch. 5, The region existed as a quiescent continental shelf environment through the early

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ...

from the

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago ...

through the Mississippian with the deposition of shelf sandstones, shale, limestone, dolomite and chert.

References

External links

Geological Survey of Alabama; Alabama State Oil and Gas BoardPashin, J.C. (2005). ''Pottsville Stratigraphy and the Union Chapel Lagerstatte''.
(PDF) Pennsylvanian Footprints in the Black Warrior Basin of Alabama, Alabama Paleontological Society Monograph no.1. Buta, R. J., Rindsberg, A. K., and Kopaska-Merkel, D. C., eds.

USGS Energy Resources Program, Map Service for the Black Warrior Basin Province, 2002 National Assessment of Oil and Gas Sedimentary basins of North America Coal mining regions in the United States Coal mining in Appalachia Geology of Alabama Geology of Mississippi Geologic provinces of the United States Methane Mining in Alabama Mining in Mississippi {{US-geology-stub

References

Further reading

External links