A review of the lignite resources of Arkansas
This review of the lignite resources of Arkansas is a part of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Coal Resource Assessment (NCRA) of the Gulf Coastal Plain Coal Province, which also includes coal-bearing areas in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky (see Ruppert et al., 2002 ; Dennen, 2009 ; and other chapters of this publication). Lignite mining is not planned in Arkansas in the immediate future, and the lignite resources of the state were not assessed in detail as part of the NCRA. This chapter includes reviews of the geology of the lignite-bearing units, historical mining, previous investigations of lignite resources, and coal quality. Palynological data for lignite samples collected in Arkansas as part of this work are presented in Table 1 .