Trace Elements in West Virginia Coals

Samarium (Sm) Summary Statistics

Histogram of samarium (Sm) content, in ppm on a whole coal basis, in West Virginia coal samples (larger version) — Select the histogram to open a larger version.

Samarium averaged 1.52 ppm (± 0.86 ppm) in West Virginia coals with a near normal histogram showing a slight tail toward higher values and a maximum value of 8.30 ppm in a bench of the Coalburg coal. Samarium correlated slightly with ash yield, and correlated very well with some other rare earth element components of monazite, especially lanthanum (La), europium (Eu), cerium (Ce), lutetium (Lu), ytterbium (Yb) and terbium (Tb). Samarium also correlated well with the ash related elements thorium (Th), scandium (Sc), chromium (Cr), vanadium (V), lithium (Li), hafnium (Hf) and lead (Pb).

Spearman Correlation Coefficients (r) with Samarium
Ash Yield	La	Eu	Ce	Lu	Yb	Tb
+0.6349	+0.9010	+0.9009	+0.8909	+0.8589	+0.8256	+0.8205
n = 538	n = 536	n = 536	n = 538	n = 503	n = 537	n = 489

Th	Sc	Cr	V	Li	Hf	Pb
+0.8142	+0.8059	+0.7726	+0.7326	+0.7087	+0.7070	+0.7019
n = 525	n = 538	n = 537	n = 537	n = 538	n = 505	n = 535

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Page content last revised: March 2, 2002