Abstract: Pre-stack elastic impedance inversion is one of the effective methods for tectonic coal distribution area prediction. Many scholars have given different elastic impedance formulas. The ability to distinguish tectonic coal of those elastic impedance formulas is a worthwhile exploring problem. This paper constructs some tectonic coal two-layer models based on different coal structures, compares and analyzes the accuracy and the ability of five typical elastic impedance formulas to distinguish the tectonic coal. Study result shows that the elastic impedance formula given by Yuanchunfang has the strongest recognition ability of tectonic coal in those five elastic impedance formulas.