coal measures

American  

plural noun

Geology.

1. coal-bearing strata.

2. (initial capital letters) in Europe, a portion of the Carboniferous System, characterized by widespread coal deposits.

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Coal Measures British  

plural noun

1. a series of coal-bearing rocks formed in the upper Carboniferous period; the uppermost series of the Carboniferous system

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Etymology

Origin of coal measures

First recorded in 1655–65

Example Sentences

Our coal measures underlie an area of more than four hundred and sixty thousand square miles.

From The Coming of Coal by Bruere, Robert W.

We have, also, in our coal measures, found trees of species long extinct, thirty to forty feet high, with roots attached as they grew in situ.

From The Bible: what it is by Bradlaugh, Charles

The cheapest iron is made in Alabama, which has its ore in rich deposits in hillsides, and coal measures close by, furnishing the raw material for coke.

From Earth and Sky Every Child Should Know Easy studies of the earth and the stars for any time and place by Rogers, Julia Ellen

The old types of marine animals changed gradually, but the coal measures show strikingly different fossils.

From Earth and Sky Every Child Should Know Easy studies of the earth and the stars for any time and place by Rogers, Julia Ellen

The coal measures before alluded to as horizontal on the borders of Wales are vertical in the Mendip Hills in Somersetshire, where the overlying beds of the New Red Sandstone are horizontal.

From Principles of Geology or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir