Coal and coal-bearing strata: Recent advances / Уголь и углесодержащие пласты: последние исследования

This volume comprises the invited keynote papers given at the International Symposium on Coal and Coal-bearing Strata held at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (University of London) from April 8th to 10th 1986. The authors were asked to consider progress in their field over the past 15 years in particular. Some additional contributions were solicited to fill gaps in the coverage. In this volume I have tried to put together a balanced view of the field and where possible asked the authors to use a similar terminology and to make reference to other contributions in the volume. Other contributions at the conference have been published in the Journal of the Geological Society of London. It is hoped that this volume will not only be of interest to researchers but also to lecturers and students alike.
I thank the Geological Society of London, the Geology Department of Royal Holloway and Bedford New College and British Coal for financial help for organizing the conference. I thank Professor A. J. Smith and Miss S. Clay for their support. Finally I thank all the authors for their presentations at the conference and all the referees who undertook the task of reviewing the papers.