Lower Miocene coal measures buried by the Krupinská planina Plateau volcanics (southern Slovakia)

 

Authors: Vass D, Milička J, Pereszlényi M, Elečko M

Published in: Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 80, issue 1; pages: 105 - 112; Received 30 July 2004; Accepted in revised form 6 December 2004;

Keywords: coal measures, Lower Miocene, Novohrad/Nógrád Basin, S Slovakia, N Hungary, tectonic control,

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Abstract

During the Early Miocene the Salgótarján Formation, of Ottnangian age, originated in the Novohrad/Nógrád Basin of southern Slovakia and northern Hungary. The formation contains coal measures. The brown coal was mined at Salgótarján, Borsod (Hungary), the Modrý Kameň-Veľký Krtíš area, and more recently at the Baňa Dolina mine (Slovakia). Because the Baňa Dolina coal reserves are almost exhausted further prospecting has been focused on the Krupinská planina Plateau, where several boreholes discovered the coal-bearing Pôtor Member of the Salgótarján Formation. The boreholes for coal prospecting drilled during the 1980s and 1990s verified the continuation of the Pôtor Member beneath the Middle Miocene volcanics of Krupinská planina Plateau.
The distribution of the coal measures is tectonically controlled. The coal field of the Baňa Dolina mine is limited to the north by the Šahy Antiform, a folded and faulted structure having a SW-NE axis. To the north of the Šahy Antiform (in the area of the Krupinska planina Plateau) the Salgótarján Formation coal measures are significantly controlled by the Dačov Lom Graben, where the coal seam is concentrated in the partial depressions and grabens. The Červeňany Depression and Veľký Lom Depression are both situated on the eastern wing of the Dačov Lom Graben. There are three coal seams in the Baňa Dolina coal field. To the north, beneath the Krupinská planina Plateau, only the third (lower) coal seam is well developed. The upper and middle coal seams are represented mostly by coal shale. The grade of coalification is brown coal orthophase, according to vitrinite reflectance: sub-bituminous B coal (Muttbraunköhle).