<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Cleats (fractures, joints) are discontinuities in coals, including lignites. They are important in mining activity because of their gas and water permeability in hard coal, and mainly because of their water permeability in lignites. As opposed to hard-coal cleats, lignite cleats have not been studied in detail before. The present contribution does so, using as an example the 1st Middle-Polish Lignite Seam (MPLS-1) in the Jóźwin IIB opencast mine in central Poland. It should be mentioned here that any remarks in the present contribution concerning MPLS-1 refer exclusively to this lignite seam in the Jóźwin IIB opencast mine.The investigated discontinuities consist of two sets, i.e. the face and butt cleats, which are roughly oriented NW-SE and NE-SW, respectively. The mean spacing of the face cleats is ~12.4 cm, while the mean spacing of the butt cleats is ~12.8 cm. The maximum average aperture is ~4.9 mm for the face cleats and ~4.1 mm for the butt cleats. The cleat spacing and aperture do not depend on the lignite thickness, but the cleat spacing increases with increasing mineral-matter and xylite content, whereas the aperture increases when the contents decrease. The regional folding and local salt diapirism tentatively explain the formation of the orthogonal system of the lignite cleats, partly because of the parallelism of the face cleats and the major tectonic directions in central Poland.</abstract>

Cleats (fractures, joints) are discontinuities in coals, including lignites. They are important in mining activity because of their gas and water permeability in hard coal, and mainly because of their water permeability in lignites. As opposed to hard-coal cleats, lignite cleats have not been studied in detail before. The present contribution does so, using as an example the 1st Middle-Polish Lignite Seam (MPLS-1) in the Jóźwin IIB opencast mine in central Poland. It should be mentioned here that any remarks in the present contribution concerning MPLS-1 refer exclusively to this lignite seam in the Jóźwin IIB opencast mine.The investigated discontinuities consist of two sets, i.e. the face and butt cleats, which are roughly oriented NW-SE and NE-SW, respectively. The mean spacing of the face cleats is ~12.4 cm, while the mean spacing of the butt cleats is ~12.8 cm. The maximum average aperture is ~4.9 mm for the face cleats and ~4.1 mm for the butt cleats. The cleat spacing and aperture do not depend on the lignite thickness, but the cleat spacing increases with increasing mineral-matter and xylite content, whereas the aperture increases when the contents decrease. The regional folding and local salt diapirism tentatively explain the formation of the orthogonal system of the lignite cleats, partly because of the parallelism of the face cleats and the major tectonic directions in central Poland.

What are cleats? Preliminary studies from the Konin lignite mine, Miocene of central Poland

Institute of Geology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Maków Polnych 16, 61-606 Poznań, Poland

Geologos

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Cleats (fractures, joints) are discontinuities in coals, including lignites. They are important in mining activity because of their gas and water permeability...

What are cleats? Preliminary studies from the Konin lignite mine, Miocene of central Poland

Published Online: May 17, 2014

Page range: 3 - 12

Received: Dec 12, 2013

Accepted: Jan 25, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/logos-2014-0001

© 2014

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.