South Wales coalfield & CBM exploration

geologi eological coalfield The regional geological setting of the South Wales coalfield with a view to CBM exploration E-W escarpments of Upper Palaeozoic strata form the southern limb of the main South Wales coalfield synclinorium (the coal basin, Cole et al., 1991) a Silesian foreland trough to the eroded European-wide Variscan mountain chain (Franke & Engel, 1988). The south crop as it is known locally is situated within this sub-Variscan fore-deep (Besly, 1988; Gayer & Jones, 1989), immediately north of the Vale of Glamorgan and west of Cardiff. A major oblique ramp-thrust fault beneath the Vale plain and other thrust faults, both lateral and frontal with transform components, juxtapose the contrasting tectonic terranes of South Wales and the Rhenohercynian zone of south west England (Warr, 1993; Brooks et al., 1994; Miliorizos et al., 2004). The coal basin contains a 3 km sequence of shallow marine, deltaic and fluviatile Carboniferous strata (Elliott, 1976; George, 1927; 1956; George & Kelling, 1982; Hartley, 1991; Burgess & Gayer, 1997) situated on Precambrian basement (Hicks, 1877; 1884; Green, 1908; Baker, 1971; 1982), Cambro-Silurian shelf strata of the Welsh basin (Woodcock, 1984; 1990; Kokelaar, 1988; Dimberline et al., 1990) and fluviatile Devonian Old Red Sandstone of the Acadian terrane (Allen, 1974; Cope, 1979; Williams, 1971; Woodcock & Gibbons, 1988). Unconformable veneers of Mesozoic and Recent strata cover areas of the south crop and form part of the geology of the Vale of Glamorgan and Bristol Channel with its significant history of fault reactivation and inversion (Brooks et al., 1988; 1994; Miliorizos et al., 2004). Of particular stratigraphic and economic importance are the Productive Measures or Middle Coal Measures and the Pennant Measures or Upper Coal Measures (Woodland & Evans, 1957; 1964). Geological investigation was restricted to these significant lithostratigraphic groups whose stratigraphy and structure are described respectively by Jones (1989) and Frodsham & Gayer (1997). The coal basin contains a variety of structures, partly Variscan in origin (Jones, 1989; 1991). They include syn-sedimentary growth faults and slides (Elliott & Lapido, 1981; Hartley & Gillespie, 1990) NE-SW striking disturbances, WNW-ESE and W-E thrust faults and NNW-SSE, N-S and NNE-SSW cross faults of strike-slip and normal fault type (Cole et al, 1991). The latter cut across the strike of the Middle and Upper Coal Measures and are of particular interest as structures with long fault histories and generators of fractures that persist throughout the Coal Measures (Miliorizos, 1992; 1994). Many cross faults named on BGS 1:50,000 series sheets (Cardiff, Bridgend, Pontypridd & Newport) preserve the regional effects on structural porosity. In this investigation, description of fractures at different scales augments previous studies of coal micro-fabrics by e.g. (Niklas, 1989; Gamson & Beamish, 1991) and coal as a reservoir (Ruiz & Crelling, 2008).

Marios N. Miliorizos University of Glamorgan 2012