Mountaintop removal mining

Mountaintop removal mining is surface coal mining that blasts and removes a mountain’s summit to expose coal seams, often placing the overburden in nearby valleys.

Overburden: Soil and rock covering a mineral deposit that must be removed before extraction. Blasted summit rock becomes overburden that must be moved before coal can be mined.
Headwater stream: A small stream near the source of a river system. Valley fills can bury these streams or alter their flow.
Appalachian coal region: A major coal-producing region spanning parts of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern North America. Mountaintop removal became especially associated with coal extraction in this region.
Underground coal mining: Coal extraction through shafts, slopes, or tunnels driven beneath the surface. It reaches buried seams without removing an entire mountain summit.
Valley fill: Rock and soil deposited in a valley, often as waste from surface mining. Mountaintop removal commonly places excess overburden in adjacent valleys.
Stream burial: The covering or elimination of a stream channel by deposited material. Filling valleys with mining waste can permanently bury stream segments.
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977: A United States law regulating surface coal mining and requiring reclamation of mined lands. This statute established federal rules governing surface coal operations and their restoration.
Contour mining: Surface coal mining that follows a seam along a hillside, removing a narrow strip of overburden. It cuts along a slope rather than leveling the summit and filling nearby valleys.
Surface mining: Mining that extracts deposits near the surface by removing soil and rock rather than tunneling underground. Mountaintop removal is a distinctive form of this broader extraction method.
Water pollution: The contamination of water by substances that harm ecosystems or human uses. Runoff from mined areas can carry dissolved minerals and other contaminants into waterways.

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