Surface outcrops and data from 75 core holes were used to study the Pennsylvanian Kanawha Formation in a 100 mi² area of western Raleigh County, West Virginia. The interval consists of approximately 1,400 ft of prograding alluvial-deltaic deposits and includes 22 coal seams.

The interval developed across drowned orthoquartzite coastal sandstones (Nutall) that mark the approximate top of the New River Formation. Its lower portion (Douglas to Eagle coals) is a generally coarsening-upward, prodelta/distal-deltaic succession of units dominated by dark shale and containing brackish-marine intercalations that extend across most of the area. Coals are widespread but commonly thin (about 1 ft), and the rate of lateral change is low. The top of this lower section is capped by outer deltaic sandstones (Eagle coals).

The upper portion of the Kanawha Formation is dominated by outer deltaic strata (to Hernshaw coal) grading upward to inner (Stockton coal) deltaic sandstones. Brackish-marine intercalations associated with autocyclic shifting of detrital lobes are restricted in areal extent. The outer deltaic coal beds are thick (up to about 6 ft) and laterally uniform; succeeding inner deltaic coals are thinner (less than 3-4 ft) and are variable laterally.

Deltaic deposits grade upward into lower alluvial plain strata of the Allegheny Formation near the ridge crests. Associated coals locally may be thick (up to 6 ft), but abrupt changes in thickness and shale partings are typical.

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