The Upper Silesian Coal Basin ( pl, Górnośląskie Zagłębie Węglowe, GZW, cs, Hornoslezská uhelná pánev) is a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

basin in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. S ...

, in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

."''Górnośląskie Zagłębie Węglowe''"
- PWN Encyclopedia The Basin also contains a number of other minable resources, such as methane, cadmium, lead, silver and zinc. Coal depth is approximately 1000 meters, and contains about 70 billion tons, with excellent extraction potential. Industrial areas within the Upper Silesian Coal Basin: * Upper Silesian Industrial Region ( pl, Górnośląski Okręg Przemysłowy, GOP) * Rybnik Coal Area ( pl, Rybnicki Okręg Węglowy, ROW) * Ostrava-Karviná Coal Area ( cs, Ostravsko-karvinská uhelná pánev) The Upper Silesian Coal Basin lies in the provinces of Upper Silesia and

Zagłębie Dąbrowskie Zagłębie in Polish means coalfield. It can refer to: * Górnośląskie Zagłębie Węglowe, a mining region * Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, a mining region *Zagłębie Sosnowiec, an association football club *Zagłębie Lubin Zagłębie Lubin S.A. ...

in southern Poland, in a highland located between the upper

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

and the upper

Oder The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows ...

rivers, as well as extending into the Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. The Upper Silesian Coal Basin includes the

Silesian metropolitan area The Upper Silesian metropolitan area is a metropolitan area in southern Poland and northeastern Czech Republic, centered on the cities of Katowice and Ostrava in Silesia and has around 5 million inhabitants. Located in the three administrative ...

and has a population of 5,294,000 (with 4,311,000 in Poland and 983,000 in the Czech Republic).

European Spatial Planning Observation Network The European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion, ESPON for short, is a European funded programme under the objective of "European Territorial Cooperation" of the Cohesion Policy of the European Union. It is co-funded by the ...

(ESPON
(pdf)
Area: 5,400 km² (in Poland - 4,500 km², in Czech Republic - 900 km²).

References

Literature

"''Historia badań i stan rozpoznania hydrogeologicznego Górnośląskiego Zagłębia Węglowego''" / "''History and State of Hydrological Investigations of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin''"
- Andrzej Różkowski, University of Silesia,

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popu ...

2008, * "''Geologia i bogactwa mineralne Górnego Śląska i obszarów przyległych''" - Wiesław Gabzdyl & Marian Gorol,

Silesian University of Technology The Silesian University of Technology ( Polish name: Politechnika Śląska; ) is a university located in the Polish province of Silesia, with most of its facilities in the city of Gliwice. It was founded in 1945 by Polish professors of the Lw ...

2009, {{Authority control Silesian Voivodeship Economy of Poland Mining in Poland Economy of the Czech Republic

See also

References

Literature