Question

Discuss the formation of coal in detail. What is this process called?

Answer 1

Coal was formed by the decomposition of large land plants and trees buried under the earth 300 million years ago. About 300 million years ago, the earth had dense forests in low-lying wetland areas. Due to natural processes like earthquakes, volcanoes and floods etc these forests were buried under the surface of the earth. As more soil was deposited over them, they were compressed. The temperature also rose as they sank deeper and deeper. Under high pressure and high temperature, dead plants got slowly converted to coal. The slow process by which the dead plants buried deep under the earth have become coal is called carbonisation. Since coal was formed from the remains of plants, therefore, coal is called a fossil fuel.