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Tonsteins are rocks which, due to their origin, mineral make-up and structure, are valuable petrographic benchmarks in the monotonously formed Carbon coal-bearing formation of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in Poland. Mineralogical study of tonsteins is important with relation to learning more about their tuffogenic protolith. It can also serve as one of the criteria when differentiating tonstein horizons with a similar texture: structure, granulation, directions and intensity of transformations of the tuffogenic m...

It has been statistically proven that tuffogenic sediments, especially tonsteins, have a negative impact on the incidence of pneumoconiosis (silicosis) among miners in French coal basin. Therefore, the rocks attract the interest of geologists not only due to their origin and possibility of use for correlation purposes, but also as a source of dust hazard in mines. The present publication presents mineralogical tests of inhalable grain size dust formed during the exploitation of a coal seam with a tonstein overgrow...