raman microspectroscopy of funginite from the upper silesian coal basin poland abstract raman spectral characteristics of funginite were compared with that of fusinite and semifusinite from the same coals inertinite concentrates prepared from four samples of coking coals from the upper silesian coal basin of poland were examined the examination reveals that funginite spectral characteristics have common features with that of fusinite or to smaller extent to semifusinite this suggests that the high reflectance of funginite might result from charring during wildfire activity

the pre quaternary history of fire abstract although evidence for land vegetation comes from the silurian and maybe even earlier the first record of fossil charcoal fusain is from the late devonian for this period there are only one or two isolated records not until the early carboniferous is there a record of extensive charcoal deposits mainly preserved in near shore clastic sediments which provide evidence of significant and widespread wildfires by the late carboniferous charcoal was common or abundant in a wide range of facies including tropical wetland peats wildfire played an important role in shaping the environment at this time the latest palaeozoic and early mesozoic records of charcoal are fewer whereas important deposits of late mesozoic age are found worldwide the occurrence of charcoal at the cretaceous tertiary boundary has been highlighted as evidence for a global fire following a meteorite impact but this interpretation is questionable charcoal has been widely reported from tertiary sediments and its appearance in the quaternary and recent is not solely as a result of human impact through the past 400 million years there have been major changes in atmospheric oxygen levels that affected fire intensity and frequency fire systems thus have a long history and their impact on shaping the environment is assessed

factors controlling geochemical and mineralogical compositions of coals preserved within marine carbonate successions a case study from the heshan coalfield southern china abstract the late permian coals in the heshan coalfield of southern china are preserved within marine carbonate successions and characterized by super high organic sulfur 5 13 10 82 minerals identified in the coals include quartz kaolinite illite mixed layer illite smectite albite pyrite marcasite calcite and dolomite along with trace amounts of smectite fluorite strontianite rey bearing carbonate minerals jarosite and water bearing fe oxysulfate the coals are very rich in trace elements including f up to 3362 g g v up to 270 g g se up to 24 4 g g mo up to 142 g g u up to 111 g g and to a lesser extent sr y zr nb cd cs heavy rare earth elements hf ta w hg and th previous studies attributed the high organic sulfur and elevated trace elements to the seawater influence or the formation of soil horizons before the accumulation of peat in the basin however mineralogical and geochemical data presented in this study have shown that the sediment source region and multi stage hydrothermal fluids are the dominant influences on the mineralogical composition and elevated trace elements in the coal although seawater influence also contributed to the composition of the mineral matter for example a large proportion of the quartz and clay minerals as well as almost all the albite in both the coal benches and the parting mudstones were derived from detrital materials of terrigenous origin in the yunkai upland high concentrations of lithophile trace elements were also derived from the sediment source region minerals including fluorite calcite dolomite strontianite and rey bearing carbonate minerals were derived from multi stage hydrothermal activities high concentrations of v mo and u that occur through the coal seam sections were probably derived from hydrothermal solutions during peat accumulation or at the early diagenetic stages the hydrothermal fluids also corroded the syngenetically formed minerals quartz albite and pyrite and caused re distribution of lithophile elements from partings to the underlying coal benches resulting in higher key element ratios yb la nb ta and zr hf and more abundant heavy rare earth elements in the coal benches than in the immediately overlying partings

disrupted coal and carbonate facies within two pennsylvanian cyclothems southern illinois basin united states two cyclothems contain an unusual suite of disrupted fabrics this study9s interdisciplinary integration of coal maceral and sedimentological information offers significant new interpretations of coal limestone interchange both depositionally and diagenetically disrupted fabrics within the herrin coal and providence limestone are interpreted as representing previously undocumented interactive processes between coals and limestones the herrin coal contains brecciated beds that are the result of marine transgression over a coastal plain mire representing high energy conditions at the swamp beach interface this interface has rarely been documented in detail peat is inherently unstable prior to its conversion to coal and we document this by interpreting conglomeratic beds in overlying strata differential compaction of herrin peats generated subaqueous debris flows in the overlying providence limestone this mechanism for syndiagenetic and early diagenetic sediment deformation has not been previously recognized in addition near surface and surface processes produced other disrupted fabrics in the providence limestone such as in situ mosaic breccias nodular fabrics and calcrete horizons this study also documents that stratigraphically adjacent alkaline carbonate sediments were further altered by undersaturated acidic pore waters derived from compacting peats during early diagenesis our interdisciplinary approach to distinguishing and interpreting all of these disrupted fabrics led to a new appraisal of the importance of depositional and postdepositional interactions between coal and limestone the presence of mire deposits can have a significant influence on the thickness distribution and fabrics in overlying strata in cyclothems climatic and eustatic changes may control overall depositional patterns but peat compaction may determine certain facies

observations and experiments on the origin and formation of inertinite group macerals the inertinite group macerals include fusinite semifusinite inertodetrinite macrinite micrinite and funginite and secretinite which together replace sclerotinite the macrolithotype fusain comprises fusinite and semifusinite and is now widely accepted as charcoal formed by wildfire activity however alternative origins for fusinite and semifusinite are still claimed this paper considers the use of the terms pyrofusinite degradofusinite rank fusinite and primary fusinite misleading while the definitions of the terms funginite and secretinite are also considered problematic observations made on modern wildfire derived and volcanogenic charcoal assemblages using reflectance and scanning electron microscopy together with experimental charcoalification studies demonstrate that most if not all inertinite macerals have acquired their optical and physical characteristics through the action of elevated temperatures the criteria for the identification of charcoals produced by wildfire and volcanic activity are outlined and the role of the petrographic nomenclature system is discussed

early paleogene wildfires in peat forming environments at schoningen germany wildfire activity in early paleogene greenhouse conditions can be used as an analogue to gauge the effect of future warming trends on wildfire in the current climate system inertinite fossil charcoal in coal from 11 autochthonous early paleogene lignite seams from the schoningen mine germany was quantified using macerations in situ pillars and industry standard crushed samples a new three transect method was developed to quantify in situ charcoal the combination of in situ pillars and crushed samples accounts for temporal and spatial variation in charcoal through a stratigraphically oriented pillar whilst maintaining comparability with industry standards and previous work charcoal occurs as a range of randomly distributed particle sizes indicating that fires were burning locally in the schoningen peat forming environment and in the surrounding areas but according to petrological data not in an episodic or periodic pattern although charcoal abundance is low relative to previous high fire worlds such as the cretaceous three quantitative and semi quantitative methods show increased wildfire activity relative to the modern world in the warmest parts of the early paleogene as atmospheric oxygen levels stabilised to modern values and precipitation and humidity became the main control on wildfire increased rainfall followed by drier intervals would have created an environment rich in dry fuel in which wildfires could easily propagate if humidity was low enough in the later part of the early eocene ypresian charcoal abundance fell to levels similar to those found in modern peats this indicates that the transition to the modern low fire world occurred within the early eocene earlier than previous records suggest

observations on the nature and origin of fusain abstract evidence for a wildfire origin of fusain is examined charcoal produced by natural fires and artificial charring resembles fossil fusain both in physical size and shape and in optical reflectance artificially charred leaves and naturally burnt wood are illustrated using the sem reflectance studies on modern charcoals suggest that much semifusinite may be produced by pyrolysis the ecological implications of a wildfire origin of fusain are discussed and it is concluded that fires have been a feature of terrestrial ecosystems from at least the late devonian

ragged edge of the herrin no 11 coal western kentucky abstract the herrin no 11 coal in western kentucky is normally a bright banded high vitrinite high sulfur coal three sites have been found where the coal deviates from the expected appearance in union county a site known only from a literature description the upper two thirds of the coal was described as a cannel in ohio county a thin truncated section of the herrin coal has a greater abundance of liptinite and inertinite rich microlithotypes towards the top of the seam the various microlithotypes were frequently found in brecciated assemblages in hopkins county the herrin coal was found to be largely a coarse breccia of oxidized macerals cemented by calcite a marine limestone was present as a parting within the coal each occurrence represents the edge of the coal the sites varied in the energy of the environment and perhaps also in proximity to marine waters

sediment transport under ice cover a method for calculating sediment transport in ice covered flows is developed laboratory data on bed form frictional characteristics and sediment transport are obtained for equivalent free surface and covered flows comparison of the data leads to the conclusion that the lower layer in a covered flow can be treated as a free surface flow for the purpose of calculating bed load transport using the flow characteristics calculated from the k e turbulence model and a conventional bed load equation the sediment transport for covered flows can be obtained the method was verified using measured data

paleoecology of the fire clay coal bed in a portion of the eastern kentucky coal field vertically continuous increment samples of the fire clay coal bed mid middle pennsylvanian late westphalian b collected from a portion of the central appalachian basin were studied palynologically petrographically and geochemically in order to partially reconstruct the paleoecology and processes associated with peat formation in the ancient fire clay paleomire results indicate that four compositional groups can be identified they are 1 a lycospora vitrinite dominant group characterized by high percentages of lycospora and vitrinite macerals and generally low but variable ash yields and sulfur contents 2 a mixed palynoflora high vitrinite group that petrographically is similar to group 1 except that it contains a more diverse palynoflora 3 a mixed palynoflora moderate low vitrinite group characterized by various admixtures of lycopsid fern and calamite miospores increased percentages of liptinite and inertinite macerals and low ash yields and sulfur contents and 4 a mixed palynoflora high ash yield group characterized by high percentages of small lycopsid fern and occasionally calamite and cordaite miospores high liptinite and inertinite contents high ash yields and moderate to high sulfur contents the fire clay coal bed contains a distinctive flint clay parting of probable volcanic origin that naturally divides the bed into two benches these two benches upper and lower are highly disparte in occurrence appearance and composition in the study area the lower bench generally is thin 0 5 m laterally discontinuous and mainly composed of dull mainly durain coal lithotypes ash yields typically are high sulfur contents generally are moderate to high compositional group 4 the mixed palynoflora high ash yield group defines all of the increments examined from the lower bench in contrast the upper bench is thick 0 75 m laterally continous and mainly comprised of bright mainly clarain coal lithotypes overall ash yields and sulfur contents for this bench are generally low although vertical variation is apparent all of the compositional groups occur in the upper bench in some columns notably those that are thick and uninterrupted by clastic partings groups 1 and 4 often occupy basal coal layers and groups 2 and 3 occur in higher layers other columns especially those taken in areas of thin 0 5 m fire clay coal are dominated by groups 1 and 4

notes on the origin of inertinite macerals in coals funginite associations with cutinite and suberinite abstract the association of fungus with plant leaves and roots is ubiquitous while many of these occurrences are considered to be pathogenic mycorrhizzal fungal associations with roots are essential for plant growth despite the common knowledge of such relationships in plant science with a few exceptions the fungus leaf root stem association as the macerals funginite cutinite and suberinite in coals has not been extensively studied in this work examples of funginite associations with cutinite and suberinite are discussed

comparing maceral ratios from tropical peatlands with assumptions from coal studies do classic coal petrographic interpretation methods have to be discarded petrographic investigations of tropical peat deposits from the tasek bera basin malaysia show that petrographic methods can contribute valuable information about paleoecological settings of mire deposits comparing modern peat forming environments and the pre maceral composition of peat samples allows the reconstruction of paleoecological conditions such as floral composition fires microbial activity etc and gives insight into paleodepositional environments in the past maceral ratios of coals have been used to interpret paleodepositional settings of coal deposits such a procedure assumes that coal texture and coal maceral composition are dictated solely by the depositional environment and thus different depositional environments should be clearly discriminated based on maceral ratios in the modern peat deposits of tasek bera divergent petrographic results occur in similar depositional environments hence poor correlation occurs between the petrography the degree of decomposition and the depositional environment furthermore from the time of peat deposition peat is subject to considerable alteration during subsequent diagenesis preservation of structured and strongly altered material such as inertinite gelified material or funginite is favoured and results in biased coal maceral compositions because maceral indexes in modern peat studies are of little utility in the reconstruction of paleoenvironmental settings it follows that coal maceral indexes should not be utilized in the future to interpret paleodepositional environments of coals

paradise and herrin lost marginal depositional settings of the herrin and paradise coals western kentucky coalfield abstract this is the fourth installment in a series of papers on the asturian westphalian d disrupted mire margins termed the ragged edge in previous papers and limestone distributions in the herrin baker coal interval in the western kentucky extension of the illinois basin new data indicating in situ peat development and marine influence collected from the first in mine exposure of this interval are presented borehole data from the region are examined in the context of ragged edge exposures and a carbonate platform depositional model for this portion of the illinois basin is presented this shows that deposition of the sequence was influenced both by the underlying sediments and by a marine transgression the former influence is seen in variations in coal and limestone thickness over sandstone filled channels versus over shale bayfill deposits the latter is marked by the progressive upwards loss of coal benches i e the bottom bench of both coals is the most extensive and the herrin coal is more extensive than the overlying paradise coal and by marine partings in both coals further the brecciated margins seen in both coal seams are similar to brecciated peats encountered along the everglades margins of southwest florida overall coal distributions are similar to both those along the everglades margins and those along a transect from the belize coast to ambergis caye

notes on the origin of inertinite macerals in coals observations on the importance of fungi in the origin of macrinite macrinite is a generally rare inertinite maceral often incorporating remnants and fragments of other macerals including vitrinite liptinite and other inertinite the associated inertinites include multiple forms of funginite funginite is also commonly found in association with vitrinite of slightly elevated reflectance and with degraded varieties of vitrinite together with the highly degraded macrinite the latter two associations are here inferred to be part of a continuum of fungal and microbial degradation of peat in any case the origin of some macrinite is potentially distinct from that of inertinite generated by fire

spatial variability in modern tropical peat deposits from sarawak malaysia and sumatra indonesia analogues for coal petrographic and chemical variability in two tropical low ash domed peat deposits of similar age and physiographic setting but different external morphology were examined as modern analogues for coal both occur in microtidal alluvial to deltaic plain settings support similar arborescent vegetation and have accumulated in the past 5 000 years one deposit is an extremely convex mature done with a surface that rises 10 m above river level the other is a low gradient dome rising only 3 m above river level but with a concave base up to 6 m below both deposits have been eroded by adjacent rivers yet peat in the mature dome has accumulated remote from persistent flooding and exhibits distinctive internal stratigraphy decomposed sapric peat floors the deposits and is overlain by increasingly better preserved woody hemic and a cap of coarse fibrous peat derived from less arborescent vegetation consistent flooding in the low gradient dome has maintained conditions for the accumulation of predominantly woody hemic peat which interfingers with and is overlain by oxidised sapric peat and levee derived clastic sediments peat types in both deposits exhibit distinctive polymodal textures and organo chemical signatures that correspond to botanical input and degree of decay due to the abundance of pre huminite vitrinite macerals in all peat types from these deposits megascopic and microscopic texture is a better discriminator for comparison to ancient coal types it is suggested that the upward vertical sequence of decreasing woodiness and increasing lightness in colour observed in the mature dome might best be compared to sequences observed in tertiary brown coals this typical sequence can be modified or overprinted due to flooding in the burial process

river ice cover influence on sediment transportation at present and under projected hydroclimatic conditions a large number of rivers are frozen annually and the river ice cover has an influence on the geomorphological processes these processes in cohesive sediment rivers are not fully understood therefore this paper demonstrates the impact of river ice cover on sediment transport i e turbidity suspended sediment loads and erosion potential compared with a river with ice free flow conditions the present sediment transportation conditions during the annual cycle are analysed and the implications of climate change on wintertime geomorphological processes are estimated a one dimensional hydrodynamic model has been applied to the kokemaenjoki river in southwest finland the shear stress forces directed to the river bed are simulated with present and projected hydroclimatic conditions the results of shear stress simulations indicate that a thermally formed smooth ice cover diminishes river bed erosion compared with an ice free river with similar discharges based on long term field data the river ice cover reduces turbidity statistically significantly furthermore suspended sediment concentrations measured in ice free and ice covered river water reveal a diminishing effect of ice cover on riverine sediment load the hydrodynamic simulations suggest that the influence of rippled ice cover on shear stress is varying climate change is projected to increase the winter discharges by 27 77 on average by 2070 2099 thus the increasing winter discharges and possible diminishing ice cover periods both increase the erosion potential of the river bed hence the wintertime sediment load of the river is expected to become larger in the future copyright 2015 john wiley sons ltd

further examination of the ragged edge of the herrin coal bed webster county western kentucky coal field abstract the herrin western kentucky no 11 coal bed in the dixon 7 1 2 min quadrangle webster county kentucky displays another manifestation of the thinning margin of the coal bed previous studies in adjacent hopkins county have demonstrated that the coal is brecciated as the margin is approached the brecciated coal is not always thin 1 5 m of brecciated inertinite rich coal was previously described to the southeast of the present study area in general the brecciated coals are considerably thinner than the 1 5 2 m thick normal herrin coal both cores studied are thin 22 6 and 33 cm and display petrographic characteristics different from thicker herrin coals the cores described in the present study show some signs of brecciation in certain cases the fragmented macerals are cemented by exsudatinite multiple generations of pyrite mineralization were noted in one core with total sulfur exceeding 13 in the upper 8 48 cm lithotype overall the cores investigated in this study along with examples from previous studies illustrate the progression of the herrin coal from its absence either through nondeposition or erosion through thin brecciated coals to mineable coals no other economic coal in western kentucky shows as many examples of the depositional edge as does the herrin all of the examples studied are from cores emphasizing the need to study more than just the thick mineable coals if the total extent of the coal body is to be understood

ftir spectroscopy and reflectance of modern charcoals and fungal decayed woods implications for studies of inertinite in coals the chemical and physical characteristics of laboratory produced charcoals natural charcoals fungal decayed woods and inertinite from a variety of western canadian coals have been investigated using ftir and standard petrologic techniques our studies confirm and extend earlier work in showing that almost all inertinite macerals can be attributed to wildfire in peat swamps and that variation in the petrological characteristics of inertinite are a product of temperature duration of heating and the nature of the initial plant material the relationships between reflectance and temperature as well as heating duration of charcoal formation are established as a reference for the examination of inertinite and the probable temperature of inertinite precursor fossil charcoal formation in paleo wildfire fungi do not directly contribute to the formation of charcoal and inertinite apart from the fungal bodies themselves funginite sclerotia and hyphae and perhaps by increasing the extent of shrinkage and cracking increasing surface area of the plant materials and thus susceptibility to charring evidence of fungal activity progressively decreases with increasing degree of charing in response to duration of heating or increased charing temperature the reflectance values and ftir spectral characteristics of inertinites in western canadian coal suggest that most inertinite formed by wildfires at temperatures over 400 c the great abundance of semifusinite in western canadian coal may reflect frequent but short duration wildfires in precursor peat swamps

under ice movement of cohesive sediments before river ice breakup a significant body of research exists on river hydraulics and sediment transport during open water conditions and to a lesser extent during the period of ice cover most of the ice related studies however are based on controlled laboratory experiments or field studies conducted under stable ice cover conditions they have largely ignored the most dynamic periods such as breakup when hydraulic conditions are most rapidly changing and energy levels are maximized moreover the entire pre breakup to ice clearance period is virtually devoid of even standard hydrometric measurements of suspended sediment largely because of safety and logistic problems some recent work has pointed to the formation of a sediment plume comprising fine grained sediments that develops before the main breakup fracturing of the ice cover this plume has been noted as being particularly ecologically significant because it can contain the winter long deposition of contaminants that preferentially attach to fine grained material unfortunately however because measurements of the critical parameters affecting sediment transport during these periods are rarely taken much uncertainty remains about the hydraulic forces that resuspend and transport sediments under an ice cover and particularly for cohesive fine grained sediments this paper describes a field experiment designed to broaden our understanding of sediment transport during this critical pre breakup period detailed measurements of river stage ice elevations flow velocity profiles and suspended sediment were taken over a 17 day period just before the 1998 river ice breakup at hay river northwest territories canada results indicated that just before breakup the shear stress which governs the beginning of sediment motion increases dramatically and drives the development of the under ice sediment plume of very fine grained cohesive sediments the shear stress in this case became critical at a mean under ice velocity of 0 4 m s copyright 2002 john wiley sons ltd

fossil wood from the middle cretaceous moreno hill formation unique expressions of wood mineralization and implications for the processes of wood preservation abstract the cretaceous turonian moreno hill formation of west central new mexico provides an opportune isotaphonomic setting to study wood preservation because both carbonized and mineralized wood are commonly found within the same sediments and often within individual specimens petrographic reflectance maceral and chemical analyses were used to compare and characterize mineralized and carbonized wood from the study site to investigate biases which influence mode of preservation coal in the form of coal inclusions is the most common form of fossil wood and mineralized wood is also widespread in the formation two striking specimens of in situ coalified stumps are particularly informative because each includes a mineralized ring that appears to represent the former location of sapwood most of the mineralized samples are primarily composed of quartz but a few specimens are predominantly mineralized with apatite calcite is present in charcoal samples where it permineralized but never replaced organic carbon this study points to two key factors that influence mineralization wood permeability and the chemical alteration of the wood prior to incorporation into the sediment the patterns of mineralization are consistent with hypothesized microbial involvement in the mineralization process the coexistence of coal and mineralized tissues in some samples suggests that the processes of silicification and phosphatization co occurred with coalification and that these processes are competitive within individual pieces of wood as such various stages of wood degradation have been preserved in mineralized samples from the moreno hill formation the study suggests that coal inclusions and mineralized wood coal associations may also be common in other ancient sediments even though weathering may obscure their presence such information is important for paleoecological and paleoenvironmental studies which utilize the occurrence of fossil wood to help reconstruct floral composition or climatic conditions

lignin land plants and fungi biological evolution affecting phanerozoic oxygen balance as dominance shifted from lycopsids and pteridophytes in the paleozoic to gymnosperms in the mesozoic to angiosperms in the tertiary plant architecture became more sparing in its use of lignin lignin degrading organisms were rare or absent in the paleozoic but diverse and abundant in the tertiary thus the terrigenous organic carbon cycle has quickened over time the fraction of terrestrial primary production preserved in coals and kerogens has declined and terrestrial production has been able to increase over time without concomitant rises in atmospheric o sub 2

historical trends in lake and river ice cover in the northern hemisphere freeze and breakup dates of ice on lakes and rivers provide consistent evidence of later freezing and earlier breakup around the northern hemisphere from 1846 to 1995 over these 150 years changes in freeze dates averaged 5 8 days per 100 years later and changes in breakup dates averaged 6 5 days per 100 years earlier these translate to increasing air temperatures of about 1 2 c per 100 years interannual variability in both freeze and breakup dates has increased since 1950 a few longer time series reveal reduced ice cover a warming trend beginning as early as the 16th century with increasing rates of change after about 1850

reassessment of the evidence for primary fusinite and degradofusinite abstract insight into the origin of fusinite was gained using late carboniferous polished coal balls permineralized peat from the new castle coal bed alabama u s a the union coal bed lancashire england and the calhoun coal bed illinois u s a two types of fusinite were studied primary fusinite fusinite formed without undergoing charring or oxidation and degradofusinite fusinite formed due to decay or degradation evidence for primary fusinite in vascular plants previously relied on color in coal ball thin sections for maceral identification color is shown to be an unreliable guide to maceral identity in coal ball thin sections other evidence for primary fusinite from vascular plants is scant abundant fungi with vitrinitic reflectivity were found in coal balls whereas none with fusinitic reflectivity were found although genuine fungal sclerotinite does exist the occurrence of fungal sclerotinite does not prove that fungal sclerotinite is primary fusinite but only that fungi can be fusinitized both lycopod periderm with fungal decay features and coprolites have vitrinitic reflectivity in coal balls these tissues should have had fusinitic reflectivity if decay or degradation results in fusinitization these results therefore cast doubt on the existence of degradofusinite charcoal and decayed tissues show features that may allow them to be distinguished in some cases in charcoal the secondary cell walls of adjacent cells together with the middle lamellae are usually fused into a single homogeneous unit in decayed tissues the middle lamellae is preferentially decayed which can result in the separation of adjacent cells some prominent illustrations of degradofusinite show fusion of the cell walls of adjacent cells indicating an origin by charring this indicates that presently accepted criteria for recognizing degradofusinite are inadequate even if degradofusinite does exist some evidence for degradofusinite does exist but the key illustration as published teichmuller 1950 1989 does not demonstrate the existence of degradofusinite

low temperature effects on flow in sand bed streams laboratory experiments were performed in a 40ft long 2ft wide 1ft deep 12 m 0 6 m 0 3 m tilting flume to elucidate the effects of temperature variations on the flow and sedimenttransport charac

coal petrology and the origin of coal macerals a way ahead the development of coal petrology and the establishment of a nomenclatural system have proved of major use both for the industrial utilization of coal and for the development of a broad understanding of coal formation and diagenesis the development over the past 30 years however of nomenclature that includes aspects of plant origin and process is a retrograde step e g pyrofusinite degradofusinite and funginite equally problematic is the use of prescriptive formulae to indicate coal origins this paper reviews some of the problems involved with coal petrology as it is usually practiced in addition new advances in organic geochemical techniques have led to a fuller understanding of the relationship of plants and coal macerals recent research on the origin of coal macerals is presented and there is a discussion of the problems and challenges facing coal petrologists a holistic approach to studies of the origin of coal and coal macerals which includes not only petrographic but also chemical and biological studies is advocated d 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

fungal origin of oxidised plant material in the palangkaraya peat deposit kalimantan tengah indonesia implications for inertinite formation in coal abstract the top 1 0 1 5 m of the 6 m thick palangkaraya peat deposit in indonesia is decaying aerobically and contains up to 22 oxidised plant material i e inertinite in contrast intervals below the level of water table fluctuation contain less than 5 oxidised material analysis of fungal remains in the peat show there is a coincident increase in total aggregate hyphal length a measure of fungal activity with the proportion of oxidised plant constituents macroscopically the top of the peat which contains the greatest proportion of oxidised material is black lacks wood fragments and would be classed as a sapric or sapric hemic peat oxidised material in the peat is predominantly epidermal cell walls of primary roots these cell walls are abnormally thickened and display a distinctive dentate structure in cross section the texture of the cell walls are either laminated or granular and often contains intercellular nodules these features together with the absence of charcoal layers in the peat suggest that oxidised constituents were derived from fungal alteration furthermore the coincident increase in fungal hyphal length with the proportion of oxidised material may suggest a causal link based on texture morphology and size the same types of oxidised plant material found in the palangkaraya peat deposit have been identified in coal beds of tertiary age from indonesia new zealand and the u s a this indicates similar fungal alteration occurred in the past and may account for some of the oxidised constituents found in coal if the palangkaraya mire is used as a model fungal alteration zones may be recognised in coals as relatively thick 0 5 2 0 m laterally extensive macroscopically dull coal

charcoal reflectance as a proxy for the emplacement temperature of pyroclastic flow deposits hot pyroclastic flow deposits often entomb and preserve vegetation as charcoal when studied in polished section this charcoal is highly reflective novel data from experimentally charred woods demonstrate that reflectance increases with both temperature and time at temperatures above 250 c reflectance rises rapidly for the first hour effectively stabilizing after 4 h for temperatures below 400 c however for higher temperatures reflectance only stabilizes after 24 h charcoalified woods from block and ash flow deposits generated by the soufriere hills volcano in montserrat have yielded interpreted deposit temperatures based on reflectance data of 325 525 c these temperatures compare favorably with directly measured data 365 640 c from the same deposits indicating that charcoal reflectance is useful as a temperature proxy for ancient pyroclastic flow deposits particularly where magnetic or mineral data are absent for this purpose however caution should be exercised as only a minimum temperature can be inferred where the heating duration of the deposit is unknown unlike magnetic or mineral data temperature data from charcoalified woods can be obtained from reworked deposits providing a valuable means of validating observations made about the style of eruption of volcanoes in ancient settings

geochemistry and petrology of selected coal samples from sumatra kalimantan sulawesi and papua indonesia abstract indonesia has become the world s largest exporter of thermal coal and is a major supplier to the asian coal market particularly as the people s republic of china is now 2007 and perhaps may remain a net importer of coal indonesia has had a long history of coal production mainly in sumatra and kalimantan but only in the last two decades have government and commercial forces resulted in a remarkable coal boom a recent assessment of indonesian coal bed methane cbm potential has motivated active cbm exploration most of the coal is paleogene and neogene low to moderate rank and has low ash yield and sulfur generally

maceral types in some permian southern african coals abstract a suite of permian gondwana coals from southern africa exclusive of the republic of south africa were examined petrographically with the exception of a single low volatile bituminous semi anthracite coal from mozambique the coal rank is high volatile bituminous c most coals were dominated by inertinite group macerals primarily semifusinite and detrital inertinite inertodetrinite but with significant secretinite in some cases vitrinite group macerals were absent in several zambian coals when considering these coals it becomes apparent that not all gondwana maceral types determined necessarily fit the iccp definitions

elements and phosphorus minerals in the middle jurassic inertinite rich coals of the muli coalfield on the tibetan plateau abstract the content modes of occurrence and origin of elements and phosphorus minerals in the jurassic coals of the muli coalfield on the tibetan plateau were investigated using optical microscopy field emission scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy dispersive x ray spectrometry x ray powder diffraction x ray fluorescence spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry the muli coals l1 and l2 coals are of high volatile a bituminous to medium volatile bituminous rank characterized by low sulfur contents and are generally dominated by the inertinite group macerals predominantly semifusinite and fusinite the l1 coal contains abundant apatite 7 9 on average on an organic matter free basis and alumino phosphate minerals of goyazite gorceixite crandallite group 4 9 on average and accordingly the concentrations of elements f 253 g g on average p 2349 g g sr 526 g g and ba 790 g g are elevated as compared with common world hard coals the deposition of phosphorous bearing minerals in the muli coals was not derived from volcanic input penetration of ca and al rich solutions release of phosphorus from organic matter during plant decay and an appropriate sedimentary environment such as low ph low water table for peat and oxidizing conditions were critical factors in deposition of the phosphorus minerals

the nature and influence of fire in carboniferous ecosystems fusain occurs widely in carboniferous coals and sediments it is now recognised to represent charcoal and be the product of wildfire the occurrence of fire is partly constrained by atmospheric oxygen levels availability and nature of fuel and by aspects of climate rainfall and seasonability in particular the majority of fires in the carboniferous were probably started by lightning strikes or by volcanic activity experiments on the charring of modern plants has shown that the reflectance of charcoal and hence fusain is directly related to temperature of formation different fire types may yield fusain assemblages of differing reflectance spectrums but it may be significant that many modern charcoal assemblages yield only semifusinites as seen by reflectance microscopy the significance of these findings is assessed in relation to the use of fusinites and semifusinites as depositional indicators as interpreted from coal petrology fires may have a dramatic effect on ecosystems not only causing changes in vegetational succession but also severe erosion can occur following a major fire which can be traced in depositional systems in this paper we document three major carboniferous sedimentary systems affected by fire clastic sedimentary systems using extensive fusain deposits in mid lower carboniferous near shore sediments in donegal ireland volcanic systems using late early carboniferous volcaniclastic sequences in the midland valley of scotland and coal and coal bearing sequences in the upper carboniferous westphalian b of the pennine basin england in the later settings the influence of fire in peat formation and succession is assessed in addition data on the vegetational composition of charcoal assemblages is considered it is concluded that fire plays a major role in many carboniferous ecosystems

the diversification of paleozoic fire systems and fluctuations in atmospheric oxygen concentration by comparing silurian through end permian 250 million years myr charcoal abundance with contemporaneous macroecological changes in vegetation and climate we aim to demonstrate that long term variations in fire occurrence and fire system diversification are related to fluctuations in late paleozoic atmospheric oxygen concentration charcoal a proxy for fire occurs in the fossil record from the late silurian 420 myr to the present its presence at any interval in the fossil record is already taken to constrain atmospheric oxygen within the range of 13 to 35 the fire window herein we observe that as predicted atmospheric oxygen levels rise from 13 in the late devonian to 30 in the late permian so too fires progressively occur in an increasing diversity of ecosystems sequentially data of note include the occurrence of charcoal in the late silurian early devonian indicating the burning of a diminutive dominantly rhyniophytoid vegetation an apparent paucity of charcoal in the middle to late devonian that coincides with a predicted atmospheric oxygen low and the subsequent diversification of fire systems throughout the remainder of the late paleozoic first fires become widespread during the early mississippian they then become commonplace in mire systems in the middle mississippian in the pennsylvanian they are first recorded in upland settings and finally based on coal petrology become extremely important in many permian mire settings these trends conform well to changes in atmospheric oxygen concentration as predicted by modeling and indicate oxygen levels are a significant control on long term fire occurrence

results of pumping tests in the deccan trap basalts of central india abstract the satpura hills region of central india is characterized by hilly to mountainous terrain plateaus and gently undulating country the area is underlain by basalt crystalline rocks and sandstone basalt rocks of cretaceous age outcrop over about 60 of the area during the past 14 years the authors through their association with the evangelical lutheran church elc water development project have been involved in the development of groundwater resources for village town agricultural and industrial uses to date over 700 wells have been drilled in the basalt rocks and aquifer pumping tests have been run on more than 200 wells as a result of the controlled testing and detailed analysis of these pumping tests it was possible to evaluate the applicability of standard analytical models for the analysis of pumping tests in basalt rock aquifers step drawdown pumping tests were run to determine the components of drawdown due to aquifer loss and well loss step test data were analyzed by rorabaugh s 1953 method and by a graphical method the results indicate that well losses comprise a significant component of drawdown in most wells and these losses are probably a result of non darcian flow in the aquifer adjacent to a pumped well constant rate pumping tests were run to determine aquifer transmissivity and specific capacity time drawdown data were analyzed by the cooper jacob 1946 approximation to the theis 1935 equation and recovery data were analyzed by the residual drawdown method aquifer transmissivity ranged over two to three orders of magnitude from less than 10m 2 day 1 to more than 300m 2 day 1 pumping test results often enabled the prediction of aquifer conditions such as limited aquifers recharge boundaries and aquifer dewatering

tales from a distant swamp petrological and paleobotanical clues for the origin of the sand coal lithotype mississippian valley fields virginia abstract tournasian mississippian price formation semianthracites r max 2 40 in the valley fields of southwestern virginia contain a lithotype described in an early 20th century report as a sand coal the center for applied energy research inherited a collection of coals containing sand coal specimens making it possible to study the lithotype from the long closed mines the sand coal consists of rounded quartz sand and maceral assemblages secretinite corpogelinite and rounded collotelinite along with banded collotelinite vitrodetrinite and inertodetrinite assemblages the association of rounded macerals and similar size quartz grains suggests transport oxidation rims surrounding the rounded collotelinite provides further evidence for transport due to the semianthracite rank palynology could not be performed stratigraphic evidence indicates that the lepidodendropsis flora would have been the dominant mire vegetation pteridosperms in this assemblage could have contributed resin rodlets subsequently metamorphosed to collogelinite or secretinite while a resin rodlet origin is an intriguing possibility for the origin of the rounded macerals at least some of the rounded maceral the rounded collotelinite clearly has a different origin we cannot definitively prove this origin