Murchison's assessment of the Donetz coal basin

Résumé En

In 1840 and 1841, Roderick Murchison, together with Edouard de Verneuil and Alexander von Keyserling, undertook two field campaigns to examine the geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains. The 1840 campaign followed a route that took them as far north as Archangel before returning through Moscow to Saint Petersburg. After the successful 1840 campaign, the Russian government sanctioned a second campaign in 1841 that took the team as far east as the Ural Mountains during which they examined the stratigraphy en route as well as copper, gold, platinum and diamond mines. The team visited the Donetz coal basin during their return journey, having been requested by the Russian government to assess the quality and quantity of the coal deposits in that region. At that time, the Czar and his ministers were debating whether to industrialize Russia, including the construction of railroads, and assessing the coal resources in the Donetz region was an important element in that debate. Murchison and his team spent several weeks in the Donetz region examining the stratigraphy and visiting coal mines. The results of their investigation appear in Chapter 6 of The Geology of Russia (Murchison et al., 1845, pp. 89-123) accompanied by cross-sections in Plate 1 and a geologic map in Plate 6. Further records of their fieldwork are found in his field notebooks, journal account, and letters written to his wife Charlotte. The team found that the active surface and shallow mines in the Donetz coal basin would soon be exhausted, but that there was promise for finding additional economic coal buried at depth beneath younger deposits, particularly if steam engines were introduced to assist with exploratory borings and mine dewatering. Murchison's recommendations were supported by his up-to-date knowledge of Paleozoic stratigraphy and coal mining technology. Those recommendations contributed to the development of an important source of coal which had ramifications for the development of Russian industry in the nineteenth century. The energy resources reported on by Murchison continue to play a role in international conflict as evidenced by the war in Ukraine that is currently under way.