The Kusko times., 1932-08-13
SURVEYS IN ANTHRACITE
 RIDGE COAL BASIN
WASHINGTON.-The U. S. Geo

WASHINGTON.-The U. s. Geo logical Survey, Department of the
 Interior, announces the completion of
 a manuscript progress report on sur
 veys in the Anthracite Ridge coal
 basin, Alaska, by R. w. Richards and
 G. A. Waring. This is one of the re
 ports resulting from the special study
 of mineral resources in the area trib-
 utary to the Alaska Railroad carried
 on during the field season of 1881.
 lnasmuch as considerable time will
 eapse before this report can be pulp
 ished, a brief summary of some of the
 results of economic importance is
 here made public by the Geological Survey.
 Anthracite Ridge is in South Gen tral Alaska, on the north side of the valley of the Matanuska river about POO miles north of Seward, the coastal terminus of the Alaska Railroad.
 The coal basin lies between the ridge and the river and is about four miles wide and seven miles ong. The structure of the basin is in general synclinal, sharply folded and faulted along it's north border. The coal beds are in the Chickaloon formation, which consists of tertiary fresh-water deposits, intruded by igneous dikes and sills, and which unconformably overlies marine cretaceous beds.
 The geologic sequence as party ex- posed in the valleys of the creeks crossing the coal basin shows the coal-bearing formation to consist chiefly of shales, with minor lentic- ular beds of sandstone and conglona- crate. A dozen or more coal beds are found in zone of severa hundred feet of beds belonging either to the lower or the middle portion of the Chickaloon formation.
 Many of the coal beds range from a few inches to about eight feet in thickness; but in one locality on the northwest border of the basin excep- tional thicknesses of 34 feet and A feet were measured. These thickest beds and others near by are of low rank anthracite tor semianthracite), and are found in cosey folded, faulted sediments further complicated by ig- neous intrusions. Most of the coal exposed in the southern and eastern parts of the basin is found in rels- lively thin beds and is of semibitum- inous to bituminous rank.
 In the absence of actual develop ment work few reliable data are available from surface exposures fur estimating the coal reserves of the basin. The most definite data are furnished by the locality showing the highest rank coal, in the s. 1-2 NV. IA sec. 12, T. 20 N., B. E., where a conservativeestimate indicates 75O,- 900 tons of coal, which in this isolated locality can not be regarded as a suf- ficient amount to justify an attempt at commercial development.
 The synclinal area immediately ad- jacent on the south holds possibilities for development, although it is m- certain that thick beds of coal of as high a rank as those in the hills to north are included in this area. How ever, as it is part of the same basin of deposition, and as the thin beds of lower-rock coal that are exposed on the south side of the basin may thicken and improve in quality across the area into the exceptionally thick beds on the north, this area undoubt- edly warrants further study
 Additional surface prospecting on the Hanks of the syncline would only partly clear up the problems involved, and core drilling is regarded as the most practical means of reaching definite conclusions as to he presence