NATURE AND COMPOSITION OF THE DEVONIAN COALS OF RUSSIA

The first economic coal accumulation in the territory of Russia is ass ociated with the Devonian deposits of Siberia. In the Barzas area of t he Kuznetsk basin a 0.8-3.6 m thick coal seam occurs in Jivetian. The Middle Devonian coals are also recorded in the Urals and in Kazakhstan . They have a peculiar microstructure and contain a great amount of th ick psilophytic culticle (to 60%). The Barzas coals are subbituminous and contain a lot of volatile matter and resins. The Upper Devonian co als differ in their composition and original matter from the Middle De vonian ones and are similar to the Lower Carboniferous coals in the Eu ropean part of Russia. The occurrence areas ofthe Upper Devonian coals have a submeridional orientation (from the Russian Platform through T iman toward islands in the Arctic Ocean).