Indiana State Profile and Energy Estimates
Indiana lies just west of the Appalachian Mountains and extends 270 miles south from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River. Indiana’s length is almost twice its width, but, with the exception of Hawaii, it is the smallest state west of the Appalachians. Sediments deposited over millions of years, when the state was covered by inland seas and later by lush swamps, became the geologic layers that contain Indiana’s fossil fuel resources, predominantly coal but also crude oil and some natural gas.