Fossil Fuels

Coal

Coal formation

Coal comes from the energy stored by land plants from swamps that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. For millions of years, a layer of dead plants at the bottom of the swamps was covered by layers of water and dirt, trapping the energy of the dead plants. The heat and pressure from the top layers helped the plant remains turn into what we today call coal.

Image showing how coal was formed

backnext

 

Back to Student Resources