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Coal- The Good
A large source of revenue for much of the Northeast, coal has been mined for profit since the beginning of the 1800s. Coal, which is composed mostly of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, is a naturally occurring, untreated, combustible rock. Coal is a fossil fuel, much like petroleum, oil shale and natural gas, which is derived from ancient plants that are buried in the Earth's crust. So how exactly does coal go from being a plant- a living, photosynthesizing organism- to a rock? During the Carboniferous Period, approximately 360 to 290 million years ago, prehistoric plants that died and decayed were buried under layers of sediment. Over millions of years, as more and more sediment covered the plants, the moisture was squeezed out of them. This process leaves only the hydrogen, sulfur, nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and inorganic mineral compounds found in the original plant matter. Though it would be easy to say that from these remnants, coal is formed, the process is still......

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Approximate Word Count: 1697
Approximate Pages: 7 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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