Satellite maps reveal the spread of coal mining in the mountains at Appalachia

Coal mining is less common than in the past, but coal mining at the mountain continues to transform Appalachian topography

To measure the physical reach of coal mines in the region, researchers from Duke University have designed a model of satellite badysis. images of mountains in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

The new badysis – detailed this week in the journal PLOS One – suggests that 1.5 million acres of mountain were converted in 1970s.

Duke scientists have already used satellite imagery to show that mountain coal mines have made the region flatter, reducing the average slope of the earth by 10%

. Explosives and machinery are used to decapitate mountain peaks, expelling the soil and bedrock to expose the layers of coal underneath. The debris left by the destruction is pushed into the adjacent valleys and sometimes into the buried stream beds.

The practice has been badociated with a variety of environmental threats, including air and water pollution. To build their model, researchers used the Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform to access 10,240 satellite images of the region taken between 1985 and 2015. A computer algorithm scanned each image. and measured for the green level of each pixel. Pixels that were not green enough and that were not part of a city, road or water plan were identified as probable mining sites .

When researchers compared the latest predictions with field data, accuracy rate of 83 percent.

"It took a few minutes to pull out the dataset," Duke researcher Andrew Pericak said in a press release. "It's a huge time saver."

As part of the study, researchers compared their data with coal production statistics. The badysis showed what many had predicted, the extraction of mountain coal has become less effective over time. Over time, more and more waste rock must be released to access coal beds.

"More land is needed to obtain the same amount of coal as in the past," said Pericak

. Colleagues hope their work will be useful to those who want to study the impacts of coal mining in the mountains. The mapping model can also be used by journalists and the public – or anyone interested in ensuring that ongoing mountain mining operations abide by the appropriate rules and regulations.

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