Coal is an essential commodity for providing fuel for domestic and industrial purposes. Before electricity descended for mankind, before gas came up as source for cooking gas, before diesel, petrol and other oils were discovered, it was coal that provided all help in comfortable living. Earlier locomotive engines ran with burning coal in their huge furnaces.

How does Coal Form? Over long period of time when dead fossils, trunks of trees etc are pushed down the earth due to natural geographical factors, the overlying pressures down the ages compress and harden up this waste matter and chemical reactions occur to change their properties, and great heat and pressure these remains alter their normal form. All these things went into forming Coal under the layers of soil.

Now we know something about: How does Coal Form? Wherever there is less oxidization, more chances of carbon matter to evolve are there. Coal seems to have come up 345 million years back. Coal mining is the process through which coal is brought out of the Earth.

Coal is considered to be a sedimentary rock. A very interesting fact about coal is: that it gives authenticity to the existence of Noah's Ark and the Great Flood. Peat was used by Noah to protect his boat from the Great Flood. According to geologists coal was formed by accumulation of decomposed plant matter in freshwater swamps and also peat bogs. This is known as autochthonous theory of the geologists.

The allochthonous theory relegates the accumulated plant decomposed matter in its place of discovery due to the work of flood waters.

How does Coal Form from remains of dead fishes? Coal does at time contain remains of moluscs, fish and brachiopods. This could have occurred when the flood waters carried the remains of such creatures along with plant fossils, to finally end up in one place. Many plants and uprooted trees from far of lands could only have reached another far off destination through transportation provided by forceful moving waters, and these waters are considered to be that of the Great Flood. At times coal is found in the shape of large boulders, and these boulders are broken down into pieces.

Many remote areas still depend upon coal or wood for their day to day affairs.

High temperatures within the earth help in metamorphosis process. Scientists have proved that millions of years are not necessary to get coal; great amount of heat applied to fossils can do the work very nicely.