Quantitative Relationship between Net Subsidence and Coal Cycles in Barakar Formation, Talchir Coalfield, Orissa

First-and second-degree polynomial regression lines were fitted to data sets consisting of total thickness of strata, number of coal cycles and average thickness of coal cycles of the Barakar Formation of Talchir coalfield. The second-degree lines do not make any statistically significant contribution to the regression variance explained by the first-degree lines which demonstrate the relationship between the data sets explicitly. Significant direct relationships are observed between the total thickness of strata and number of coal cycles, as well as between total thickness of strata and average thickness of coal cycles. On the other hand, significant inverse relationship exists between number of coal cycles and their average thickness. The study suggests that the Barakar succession is fluvial, and the successive coal cycles were generated by lateral migration of meandering streams in response to intrabasinal differential subsidence.