Graph Analysis

As expected, the surface temperature of various surfaces and the AOT respond to each other inversely. When the AOT rises, the surface temperature falls, and vice versa. All of our surface temperatures follow a general trend in relation to each other, only varying a few degrees in either direction. Dark surfaces with higher absorption, like the asphalt, tend to have higher temperatures than lighter surfaces with higher albedo, like the football field, which is a grassy area. These results very strongly confirm the data we already know to be true.

Surface Temperature Graphs

Surface Mining

There are also many ways of mining coal on the surface as well.

Strip mining is a technique used to mine ore when the surface above the ore, or "overburden" is unsteady. In surface mining, the overburden is extracted and placed in the area where the ore from the previous mine has been evacuated. During the evacuation process, explosives are often used. This type of mining is easier, faster, and sometimes safer for miners. The devastation of the landscape however is extreme, with extra vegetation being deposited alongside the overburden and rain or flooding contaminating nearby water sources.

Contour mining is another type of surface mining. This type of mining, as suggested by its name, follows the contour of the hill or mountain to leave terraces in the hill. This method has both technical and economical limits. Although this method favors mountains regions, it is both unprofitable or technically impossible to continue after a certain point.

Mountaintop removal is the most controversial and environmentally damaging type of surface mining. In this method, the tops of hills or mountains are removed and pushed to areas between high elevation. The original area is never restored and water contamination is a large concern, despite being more financially effective and safer for miners.

Underground Mining Methods

There are variety of different underground mining methods, all having their own benefits and frustrations.

     Drift mining is an underground method that attempts to collect coal by intersecting or mining a coal seam in a nearly horizontal shaft. The coal can then be transported out from the ground by conveyor belt to be prepared and shipped out. This method is generally used when the coal is underneath a hill, but still above the adjacent ground level and is both cheaper and safer than most other underground methods, and uses less energy in transferring coal outside of the mine. Drift mining also risks occasional flooding, however, and can't be used in every circumstance.

     Shaft mining is another method used when the coal seem is well below ground level and excavates coal in a vertical manner. Shafts and elavators are used to transport both coal and the miner from the underground seam to the surface and vice versa, where the seams are commonly below 1,000 feet underground. When the ore is dynamited and broken into chunks, it is then put on a type of pulley system to be loaded into trucks. While this method of mining is much faster and conventional, frequently with better air quality, it is also more expensive than other methods, and historically the most dangerous. 

     Room and pillar mining is a system in which the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane making an array of rooms and pillars, where the pillars are large blocks of the extracted material. The pillars can "squeeze" and compact, making roof-falls a constant danger. It is much faster than other methods, but it also yields fewer results, with much less coal being extracted. After the rooms have been excavated, the pillars are then mined partially, leaving the mine to collapse in on itself.

     In continuous mining, machines can be used to help excavate coal (frequently used in drift and room and pillar mining). One miner can operate a continuous miner to mine 5 tons of coal per minute. These machines have been use in varying frequencies since the 1940's, and account for about 45% of the product of current mining. Continuous miners are extremely inexpensive and safe when compared to other mining techniques, but do not always provide adequate roof support and eliminate some jobs previously given to miners. These machines are slowly becoming the prefered method of mining. 

Longwall mining also uses machines and is highly efficient. Huge mining machines support the roof with hydraulics as the cutter removes the coal. Again, when the coal is removed, the machines retreat and allow the cavern to collapse. This collapse can often impact the geological features above the air, such as rivers. Still, the method remains safer, provides better roof support, and extracts more coal than any other method. 





Primary sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Underground_mining

Quinwood Coal Camp

     Quinwood Coal Camp, located in the Greenbriar coal field near Lewisburg, WV, began its journey in 1919 and was owned by Quin Morton and Walter Wood (their company was called the Imperial Smokeless Coal Cmpany). There were close to 400 people in the town; 95.40% White, 2.53% African American, 0.23% Native American, and 1.84% from two or more races, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.92% of the population. In 1947, Quinwood was among the few coal camps that became incorporated.In the mid 1940's the company opened two additional mines just across the county border under the same coal camp named simply, no. 2 and no. 3. No. 1 closed in 1949, no. 3 in 1958, and no. 2 in 1971. Another company, Westmoreland Coal Co., bought the no. 2 mine and operated it until 1982. AT Massey later purchased this from Westmoreland, and operated it into the 21st Century.

http://www.coalcampusa.com/sowv/green/quinwood/quinwood.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinwood