Donetsk Coalfield (English: Donetsk Coalfield)

Donbas is one of the world's largest coalfields in southeastern Ukraine. It is also called Donbass, an abbreviation of the original language. It is located on the Donets River, a tributary of the Don River, and the eastern part of the coalfield extends into the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. This area, which covers an area of ​​4,100 square kilometers, not only has huge coking coal reserves, but also contains most of the anthracite reserves of the Soviet Union. By region, anthracite is produced in the eastern part, and coking coal in the western part. The coal-bearing layers were formed in the Carboniferous Period of the Paleozoic Era, and consist of alternating layers of marine and freshwater strata. Although the coal has the disadvantage of being high in ash and sulfur, it is located in the center of the Soviet Union and is extremely favorable in terms of its location, with iron ore mining areas and Ukrainian industrial areas nearby, so it has developed as the Soviet Union's number one coal-producing area since ancient times. Annual production volume exceeded 230 million tons in the 1980s, but in the 1990s production volume dropped significantly to around 60 million tons.

There are more than 200 coal beds in the center of the coalfield, but nearly half of them are thin layers less than 0.45 meters thick. The remaining coal beds are also relatively thin, with most less than 1.75 meters thick. The inclination of the coal beds varies from gentle to steep. In addition, because this coalfield has a long history of development, the coal mines are also getting deeper. The average working depth is over 600 meters, and more than 35% of the coal produced comes from depths of 700 meters or more. As the coal mines get deeper, the occurrence of gas outbursts has also increased, and measures and research on this issue are being vigorously carried out. Steeply inclined coal beds have good coal quality and there is little risk of gas outbursts, so there is growing interest in mechanized mining of steeply inclined and thin beds, and technological development is being promoted. In addition, for gently inclined layers, the wholesale mining method, in which coal is mined from the top of the mining area downward, and the uphill mining method, in which coal is mined from the bottom upward, are adopted in an effort to expand the scale of production as the mine moves deeper.

[Kinoshita Shigenori and Higuchi Sumishi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ウクライナ南東部にある世界有数の大炭田。原語を略してドンバスともいう。ドン川支流のドネツ川沿岸に位置し、炭田の東部はロシア連邦の北カフカス地区に入り込んでいる。面積4100平方キロメートルにも及ぶ同地には莫大(ばくだい)な原料炭埋蔵量があるばかりでなく、ソ連の無煙炭埋蔵量の大部分が賦存していた。地区別では東部に無煙炭、西部に原料炭を産出する。夾炭(きょうたん)層は古生代石炭紀に形成されたもので、海成層と淡水成層の互層からなっている。炭質は灰分ならびに硫黄(いおう)分が多いという欠点があるが、ソ連の中心部に存在し、付近に鉄鉱採掘地およびウクライナ工業地帯を控えているなどきわめて地の利に恵まれていたため、古くからソ連第一の産炭地として発展してきた。年生産量は1980年代に2億3000万トンを超えたこともあったが、1990年代に入ると生産量は大幅に減少し、約6000万トン程度になった。

　炭層は炭田中央部で200枚を超えるが、半分近くは0.45メートル以下の薄層である。残りの炭層も比較的薄く、大部分1.75メートル以下である。炭層の傾斜も緩傾斜から急傾斜までさまざまである。また、当炭田は開発の歴史が古いため、炭坑の深部化も進んでいる。稼行深度は平均で600メートルを越え、出炭の35％以上は700メートル以深からもたらされている。深部化に伴ってガス突出の発生も増加し、これに対する対策と研究が熱心に行われている。急傾斜炭層は炭質がよく、ガス突出の危険が少ないため、急傾斜および薄層の機械化採炭に対する関心が高まり、技術開発が進められている。さらに緩傾斜層についても採炭区画の上部から下方へ向かって採炭を進める卸向き採炭法や、逆に下部から上方へ向かって採炭を進める昇り向き採炭法などを採用し、深部移行に伴う生産規模の拡大を図っている。

［木下重教・樋口澄志］

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