View allAll Photos Tagged bituminous
University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics,
School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, "Bituplaning: A Low Dry Friction Phenomenon of New Bituminous Road Surfaces" By John Charles Bullas BSc MSc MIAT MIHT FGS May 2007 Thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Typical view at Rainbow Mountain Preserve in Madison, Alabama. The park is quite rocky in areas, comprised of a formation called the Hartselle Sandstone, the formation being made up of sandstone, limestone, and shale laid down in the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods of the Paleozoic Era (570-225 million years ago). These sediments accumulated in depositional settings ranging from shallow shelf to back-barrier lagoons and tidal flats, all areas relating to shallow seas. Trace fossils and to a lesser extent body fossils can be abundant in the formation, particularly worms, bivalves, bryozoans, asteroids (starfish), and ophiuroids (brittle stars). Brachiopods are in my experience the most common fossil, though crinoid fragments can be common.
The formation has been quarried in several locations for sandstone for use in building, landscaping and civil engineering and ground into sand for casting. In some areas, such as near Littleville in Colbert County the sandstone is impregnated with bituminous alphaltum, leading some to explore the possibility that the bed harbors oil reserves, perhaps extending below the Warrior coal fields of Northwest Alabama.
www.bhamwiki.com/w/Hartselle_sandstone
www.envs.emory.edu/faculty/MARTIN/ichnology/IN-Hartselle-...
Cannel coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (bedding plane view; ~9.3 centimeters across at its widest)
Cannel coal is a scarce, fossil spore-rich variety of coal - it is hard and weathering-resistant, has a velvety to satiny luster, little to no stratification, and a conchoidal fracture. The differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal (lignite, bituminous, anthracite) are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
This eastern Ohio sample is from the Bedford Coal in the Pottsville Group, a Pennsylvanian-aged cyclothemic succession containing nonmarine shales, marine shales, siltstones, sandstones, coals, marine limestones, and chert ("flint"). The lower Pottsville dates to the late Early Pennsylvanian. The upper part dates to the early Middle Pennsylvanian. The Lower-Middle Pennsylvanian boundary is apparently somewhere near the Boggs Member (?).
The Bedford Coal occurs just below the Upper Mercer Limestone, which is often a flint-dominated interval. Lithologically, the Bedford ranges from carbonaceous shale to argillaceous coal to bituminous coal to cannel coal. The cannel coal in the Bedford was targeted for mining in the 1800s as a source of fuel. It was particularly useful in the manufacture of kerosene, an illuminating fuel. After the petroleum industry started in the 1860s, production of kerosene from cannel coal essentially ceased.
Stratigraphy: Bedford Coal, upper Pottsville Group, Atokan Stage, lower Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Tunnel Hill North Portal Outcrop (= Noland Tunnel's northern portal), ~1.75 air miles north-northeast of the town of Tunnel Hill, western Coshocton County, eastern Ohio, USA (~40° 16’ 33.27” North latitude, ~82° 01’ 53.04” West longitude)
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For more info. on cannel coal in general, see:
The Pottsville Group is a Pennsylvanian-aged cyclothemic succession containing nonmarine shales, marine shales, siltstones, sandstones, coals, marine limestones, and chert ("flint"). The lower Pottsville dates to the late Early Pennsylvanian. The upper part dates to the early Middle Pennsylvanian. The Lower-Middle Pennsylvanian boundary is apparently somewhere near the Boggs Limestone horizon (?).
The gray unit in the middle of the photo is the Lower Mercer Limestone, a Middle Pennsylvanian-aged, laterally persistent, marine fossiliferous limestone unit in the Pottsville Group of eastern Ohio, USA. It is richly fossiliferous, principally dominated by brachiopods and crinoid stems.
Above the Lower Mercer Limestone is the Lower Mercer Shale, a marine mudshale to calcareous mudshale unit with fossils. The relatively thin, dark-colored horizon below the Lower Mercer Limestone is the Middle Mercer Coal. It usually consists of bituminous coal, but in places at this locality, it is a cannel coal.
The orangish brown-colored unit at the bottom of the picture is "underclay", consisting of soft clayshale. The coloration is from iron oxide staining. The iron oxide formed by oxidative weathering of pyrite impurities in the coal horizon.
Stratigraphy: Lower Mercer Shale over Lower Mercer Limestone over Middle Mercer Coal, Pottsville Group, lower Atokan Stage, lower Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Rock Cut railroad cut - outcrop along the southern side of Ohio Central Railroad tracks (west of milepost 134), ~southwest of Copeland Island & south-southeast of the town of Dresden, northern Muskingum County, eastern Ohio, USA (~vicinity of 40° 04’ 24.41” North latitude, ~81° 59’ 11.25” West longitude)
Bituminous coal from the Cretaceous of Utah, USA.
Coal is a carbon-rich, biogenic sedimentary rock. It forms by the burial and alteration of organic matter from fossil land plants that lived in ancient swamps. Coal starts out as peat. With increasing burial and diagenetic alteration, peat becomes lignite coal, sub-bituminous coal, and then bituminous coal. Bituminous coals tend to break and weather in a blocky fashion, are relatively sooty to the touch, and are harder and heavier than lignite coal (but still relatively soft and lightweight). Discernible plant fossil fragments may be present on bituminous coal bedding planes - sometimes in abundance. Bituminous coals commonly have irregular patches of shiny, glassy-textured organic matter (vitrain).
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Info. from public signage at Wittenberg University's Geology Department (Springfield, Ohio, USA):
Origin of Coal
Coal is formed from accumulated vegetation that grew in peat-forming swamps on broad lowlands that were near sea level. Cyclothems indicate that the land must have been at a "critical level" since the change from marine to non-marine sediments shows that the seas periodically encroached upon the land.
Formation of Coal
The change from plant debris to coal involves biochemical action producing partial decay, preserval of this material from further decay, and later dynamochemical processes. The biochemical changes involve attack by bacteria which liberate volatile constituents, and the preserval of the residual waxes and resins in the bottom of the swamps where the water is too toxic for the decay-promoting bacteria to live. The accumulated material forms "peat bogs". The dynamochemical process involves further chemical reactions produced by the increased pressure and temperature brought about by the weight of sediment that is deposited on top of it. These reactions are also ones in which the volatile constituents are driven off.
Rank of Coal
The different types of coal are commonly referred to in terms of rank. From lowest upward, they are peat (actually not a coal), lignite, bituminous, and anthracite. The rank of the coal is the result of the different amounts of pressure and time involved in producing the coal.
Bituminous
Bituminous coal is a dense, dark, brittle, banded coal that is well jointed and breaks into cubical or prismatic blocks and does not disintegrate upon exposure to air. Dull and bright bands and smooth and hackly layers are evident. It ignites easily, burns with a smoky yellow flame, has low moisture contnet, medium volatile content, and fixed carbon and heating content is high. It is the most used and most desired coal in the world for industrial uses.
In the United States, the Northern Appalachian fields lead in production, followed by the interior fields of the Midwest.
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This sample comes from Utah's Bronco Mine, which reportedly started in the 1880s. The coal ranks as high-volatile C bituminous coal, which means it gives off less heat than high-volatile A or B bituminous coals. The former gives off about 11,500 British thermal units (Btu) of heat per pound of coal. The latter two give off about 14,000 and 13,000 Btu per pound, respectively.
Stratigraphy: coal horizon in the Ferron Sandstone Member, Mancos Shale, Upper Cretaceous
Locality: Bronco Mine (= Emery Deep Mine), Emery County, central Utah, USA
Bituminous coal from the Cretaceous of Utah, USA.
Coal is a carbon-rich, biogenic sedimentary rock. It forms by the burial and alteration of organic matter from fossil land plants that lived in ancient swamps. Coal starts out as peat. With increasing burial and diagenetic alteration, peat becomes lignite coal, sub-bituminous coal, and then bituminous coal. Bituminous coals tend to break and weather in a blocky fashion, are relatively sooty to the touch, and are harder and heavier than lignite coal (but still relatively soft and lightweight). Discernible plant fossil fragments may be present on bituminous coal bedding planes - sometimes in abundance. Bituminous coals commonly have irregular patches of shiny, glassy-textured organic matter (vitrain).
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Info. from public signage at Wittenberg University's Geology Department (Springfield, Ohio, USA):
Origin of Coal
Coal is formed from accumulated vegetation that grew in peat-forming swamps on broad lowlands that were near sea level. Cyclothems indicate that the land must have been at a "critical level" since the change from marine to non-marine sediments shows that the seas periodically encroached upon the land.
Formation of Coal
The change from plant debris to coal involves biochemical action producing partial decay, preserval of this material from further decay, and later dynamochemical processes. The biochemical changes involve attack by bacteria which liberate volatile constituents, and the preserval of the residual waxes and resins in the bottom of the swamps where the water is too toxic for the decay-promoting bacteria to live. The accumulated material forms "peat bogs". The dynamochemical process involves further chemical reactions produced by the increased pressure and temperature brought about by the weight of sediment that is deposited on top of it. These reactions are also ones in which the volatile constituents are driven off.
Rank of Coal
The different types of coal are commonly referred to in terms of rank. From lowest upward, they are peat (actually not a coal), lignite, bituminous, and anthracite. The rank of the coal is the result of the different amounts of pressure and time involved in producing the coal.
Bituminous
Bituminous coal is a dense, dark, brittle, banded coal that is well jointed and breaks into cubical or prismatic blocks and does not disintegrate upon exposure to air. Dull and bright bands and smooth and hackly layers are evident. It ignites easily, burns with a smoky yellow flame, has low moisture contnet, medium volatile content, and fixed carbon and heating content is high. It is the most used and most desired coal in the world for industrial uses.
In the United States, the Northern Appalachian fields lead in production, followed by the interior fields of the Midwest.
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This sample comes from Utah's Bronco Mine, which reportedly started in the 1880s. The coal ranks as high-volatile C bituminous coal, which means it gives off less heat than high-volatile A or B bituminous coals. The former gives off about 11,500 British thermal units (Btu) of heat per pound of coal. The latter two give off about 14,000 and 13,000 Btu per pound, respectively.
Stratigraphy: coal horizon in the Ferron Sandstone Member, Mancos Shale, Upper Cretaceous
Locality: Bronco Mine (= Emery Deep Mine), Emery County, central Utah, USA
University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics,
School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, "Bituplaning: A Low Dry Friction Phenomenon of New Bituminous Road Surfaces" By John Charles Bullas BSc MSc MIAT MIHT FGS May 2007 Thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
This is a Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary section in eastern Ohio. At most sites in North America, the boundary is a significant unconformity - it's actually a megasequence boundary (Sloss sequence boundary) between the Absaroka Megasequence (above) and the Kaskaskia Megasequence (below). The boundary is little below the middle of the photo.
The cliff-forming unit in the middle part of the picture is a quartzose sandstone that represents the basal-preserved Pottsville Group at this locality. Mixed siliciclastics occur above. The sandstone unit is here interpreted to be the Massillon Sandstone, a variably-developed member in the lower to middle Pottsville Group.
Laterally at this site, a relatively thin bituminous coal horizon is present just below the sandstone. The identity of this coal bed is uncertain, but it may be the Quakertown Coal (or Number 2 Coal), or an unnamed coal, or the Wellston Coal (a name from Jackson County, Ohio). If the sandstone unit is misidentified (i.e., it's not the Massillon), it could be the Sharon Sandstone. If so, the underlying coal is the Sharon Coal.
The grayish rocks in the bottom half of the picture are siliciclastics of the Vinton Member, the uppermost of four members of the Logan Formation. The Vinton consists of marine mixed siliciclastics - principally shales, siltstones, and sandstones.
Stratigraphy: inferred Massillon Sandstone (lower Pottsville Group, upper Lower Pennsylvanian) over Vinton Member, (upper Logan Formation, Osagean Series, upper Lower Mississippian)
Locality: Trinway West 6 Outcrop - roadcut on the northwestern side of Rt. 16, 1.0 miles northeast of the Rt. 16-Old Riley Road intersection, northeast of the town of Frazeysburg & west of the town of Trinway, northwestern Muskingum County, Ohio, USA (40° 08' 41.54" North latitude, 82° 05' 06.18" West longitude)
This is a Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary section in eastern Ohio. At most sites in North America, the boundary is a significant unconformity - it's actually a megasequence boundary (Sloss sequence boundary) between the Absaroka Megasequence (above) and the Kaskaskia Megasequence (below). The boundary is just above the middle of the photo.
The cliff-forming unit in the upper part of the picture is a quartzose sandstone that represents the basal-preserved Pottsville Group at this locality. Mixed siliciclastics occur above. The sandstone unit is here interpreted to be the Massillon Sandstone, a variably-developed member in the lower to middle Pottsville Group.
Laterally at this site, a relatively thin bituminous coal horizon is present just below the sandstone. The identity of this coal bed is uncertain, but it may be the Quakertown Coal (or Number 2 Coal), or an unnamed coal, or the Wellston Coal (a name from Jackson County, Ohio). If the sandstone unit is misidentified (i.e., it's not the Massillon), it could be the Sharon Sandstone. If so, the underlying coal is the Sharon Coal.
The grayish rocks in the bottom half of the picture are siliciclastics of the Vinton Member, the uppermost of four members of the Logan Formation. The Vinton consists of marine mixed siliciclastics - principally shales, siltstones, and sandstones.
Stratigraphy: inferred Massillon Sandstone (lower Pottsville Group, upper Lower Pennsylvanian) over Vinton Member, (upper Logan Formation, Osagean Series, upper Lower Mississippian)
Locality: Trinway West 6 Outcrop - roadcut on the northwestern side of Rt. 16, 1.0 miles northeast of the Rt. 16-Old Riley Road intersection, northeast of the town of Frazeysburg & west of the town of Trinway, northwestern Muskingum County, Ohio, USA (40° 08' 41.54" North latitude, 82° 05' 06.18" West longitude)
Anthracite coal from the Pennsylvanian of Pennsylvania, USA.
Anthracite coal is the highest-rank of coal. It forms by very low-grade metamorphism (anchimetamorphism) of bituminous coal. Anthracite is always black-colored, with a glassy texture, and is harder and heavier than other coals, although it is still relatively soft and lightweight for its size. In comparison with lignite and bituminous coal, anthracite is less sooty to the touch. Anthracite burns hotter than other coal types, due to its high carbon content (~90% C). It is also the cleanest-burning of all the coal ranks.
Anthracite is a scarce variety of coal. The highest concentration of anthracite on Earth is in the Pennsylvanian-aged coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania, USA. There is still some uncertainty in the details about the origin of Pennsylvania anthracite coal. In Colorado, an anthracite coal deposit occurs next to an igneous intrusion - the anthracite formed by heating from contact or hydrothermal metamorphism. It's been suggested that Pennsylvania anthracite was hydrothermally metamorphosed. The anthracite in Pennsylvania was originally deposited in coal swamps that were relatively high on ancient alluvial plains - those environments are usually not preserved in mountain belts (they get uplifted and eroded). In Pennsylvania, the high alluvial plain facies were downdropped and got preserved, resulting in anthracites representing different facies from those seen in bituminous coal fields.
Age: Pennsylvanian
Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site at or near the town of Hazelton (probably a coal mine), eastern Pennsylvania, USA
Cannel coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (cross-section view)
The Linton Lagerstätte is a famous fossil deposit at the Diamond Coal Mine in far-eastern Ohio. It occurs in channel-filling, fissile cannel coal in the lower Upper Freeport Coal. The Upper Freeport is about 9 feet thick at this locality - bituminous coal in the Upper Freeport interval was the target for mining. The fissile cannel coal at the base of the Upper Freeport was waste rock and discarded in a large pile. Fossils include plants (palynomorph microfossils), invertebrates (principally conchostracans), and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles).
Cannel coals are odd varieties of coal. They don’t have the look & feel of ordinary coals such as lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite. Cannel coals are lightweight, as all coals are, but are surprisingly tight and solid - they hold up to natural weathering pretty well, considering they’re coals. They are not sooty to the touch, and have conchoidal fracture (smooth & curved fracture surfaces). Cannel coals usually lack the well-developed horizontal bedding & laminations seen in lignites and bituminous coals.
Not surprisingly, the differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
The Linton cannel coal is unusual because it is fissile - it breaks into thin, flat pieces, as shale does.
Stratigraphy: lower part of the Upper Freeport Coal (= Number 7 Coal), Allegheny Group, Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Diamond Coal Mine, Linton, far-eastern Jefferson County, far-eastern Ohio, USA
MAINTENANCE BUILDING 58 –
To the rear of building 62, and separated from it by an earthwork traverse, is building 58 (Drg No. 1244/53) it is designated Storage Building 'C-D'. It is approached along paths which lead back towards the bomb stores and the main gate, the entrances to the store are shielded by freestanding breeze block walls. The construction of the building is similar to the non-nuclear component stores, buildings 59-61, being formed from reinforced concrete columns and beams infilled with block work. It is, however, taller than the stores, buildings 59-61 and stands 23ft 11i from floor to ceiling. The main central section measures 70ft by 30ft, at each end of which are air lock porches 20ft by 15ft, while to the rear is plant and dark room 34ft 5in by 20ft. The root is a 5½in thick reinforced concrete slab, with a coating of bituminous felt. The building is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
▪︎RARITY – It is a rare building in a national and international context. Designed in the 1950's for storing innovative nuclear technology, RAF Barnham is the only such surviving facility in England.
▪︎HISTORIC INTEREST – A unique building surviving from the Cold War, designed to accommodate Britain's first nuclear weapon, the ''Blue Danube''.
▪︎GROUP VALUE – Building 58 has strong group value with the other buildings at RAF Barnham, both in terms of their function and historic significance.
▪︎INTACTNESS – Building 58 is a largely intact, bespoke structure.
Maintenance Building 58 was probably one of two buildings on the site (the other being the much altered Building 62) used for the inspection of the bombs brought from the airfields. Documents record some movement of bombs between the site and airfields and indeed pantechnicons designed to carry a complete weapon were known to have visited the site. It is now used for light engineering.
▪︎MATERIALS – Building 58 has a reinforced concrete frame and blockwork walls, over-painted at the east end, and is shielded by freestanding blast walls.
▪︎PLAN – The building has a rectangular plan, aligned approximately east-west.
▪︎EXTERIOR – The building has projecting entrance bays to the east and west, which contained airlocks internally, both of which have double height steel doors through which the bombs would travel. To the north are attached single storey toilet blocks and a store room with replaced fenestration.
▪︎INTERIOR – The central section of the building is largely featureless except for a runway beam which originally supported four hoists. The airlocks in the porches have been removed.
Although the site was used for storage of Mustard Gas and explosives during World War II, it was not until after the end of hostilities that the depot was constructed in its current form. In the early 1950's, the Air Ministry had a continuing need for high explosive bombs and storage facilities for them in anticipation of a future war in which atomic and thermo-nuclear weapons would be used by both sides.
It is within this historic context that the Special Storage Unit at RAF Barnham was constructed following the issuing of ''Blue Danube'', Britain's first nuclear bomb, to the RAF in November 1953. The bombs were held in clutches in V-bomber airfields such as RAF Scampton and RAF Wittering and the purpose of the store at RAF Barnham, and the almost identical site at RAF Faldingwoth in Lincolnshire, was to provide maintenance and refurbishment to support the airfields and hold spare warheads.
The Air Ministry plan for the Store is dated May 1953, although planning for the facility almost certainly had started before this, and it was fully operational by July 1954. In the first phase of works, the fences, earthworks, fissile core storage hutches, inspection buildings and gantries were built by August 1955. The small arms and pyrotechnics store, barrack accommodation, gymnasium, telephone exchange, meat preparation store and dog compound were erected shortly after to strengthen security. By mid 1955 the double fence was in place, later augmented by the current observation towers erected in early 1959 replacing smaller structures.
The Special Storage Unit remained the main holding place for the Mk. I atomic bomb, under control of Bomber Command until November 1956 when an independent Unit (95 Commanding Maintenance Unit) was formed. During the operational life of the site, second and third generation British nuclear weapons such as ''Red Beard'' and ''Yellow Sun'' were introduced and stored there. By 1962, the site was in decline and the Maintenance Unit ceased to exist on 31st July 1963. The closure of the station is probably linked to the operational deployment of ''Blue Steel'' from late 1962.
The site was sold to the current owners in 1966 and later let out for light industrial use. Some of the buildings have been altered and significantly, one of the Non-nuclear stores burnt down in the 1980’s, but there has been an on-going maintenance and repair programme agreed with English Heritage resulting in the preservation of the site.
Information sourced from – historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1402411
English Heritage.
Cannel coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (bedding plane view)
The Linton Lagerstätte is a famous fossil deposit at the Diamond Coal Mine in far-eastern Ohio. It occurs in channel-filling, fissile cannel coal in the lower Upper Freeport Coal. The Upper Freeport is about 9 feet thick at this locality - bituminous coal in the Upper Freeport interval was the target for mining. The fissile cannel coal at the base of the Upper Freeport was waste rock and discarded in a large pile. Fossils include plants (palynomorph microfossils), invertebrates (principally conchostracans), and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles).
Cannel coals are odd varieties of coal. They don’t have the look & feel of ordinary coals such as lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite. Cannel coals are lightweight, as all coals are, but are surprisingly tight and solid - they hold up to natural weathering pretty well, considering they’re coals. They are not sooty to the touch, and have conchoidal fracture (smooth & curved fracture surfaces). Cannel coals usually lack the well-developed horizontal bedding & laminations seen in lignites and bituminous coals.
Not surprisingly, the differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
Stratigraphy: lower part of the Upper Freeport Coal (= Number 7 Coal), Allegheny Group, Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Diamond Coal Mine, Linton, far-eastern Jefferson County, far-eastern Ohio, USA
University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics,
School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, "Bituplaning: A Low Dry Friction Phenomenon of New Bituminous Road Surfaces" By John Charles Bullas BSc MSc MIAT MIHT FGS May 2007 Thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics,
School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, "Bituplaning: A Low Dry Friction Phenomenon of New Bituminous Road Surfaces" By John Charles Bullas BSc MSc MIAT MIHT FGS May 2007 Thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Cannel coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (cross-section view)
The Linton Lagerstätte is a famous fossil deposit at the Diamond Coal Mine in far-eastern Ohio. It occurs in channel-filling, fissile cannel coal in the lower Upper Freeport Coal. The Upper Freeport is about 9 feet thick at this locality - bituminous coal in the Upper Freeport interval was the target for mining. The fissile cannel coal at the base of the Upper Freeport was waste rock and discarded in a large pile. Fossils include plants (palynomorph microfossils), invertebrates (principally conchostracans), and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles).
Cannel coals are odd varieties of coal. They don’t have the look & feel of ordinary coals such as lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite. Cannel coals are lightweight, as all coals are, but are surprisingly tight and solid - they hold up to natural weathering pretty well, considering they’re coals. They are not sooty to the touch, and have conchoidal fracture (smooth & curved fracture surfaces). Cannel coals usually lack the well-developed horizontal bedding & laminations seen in lignites and bituminous coals.
Not surprisingly, the differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
The Linton cannel coal is unusual because it is fissile - it breaks into thin, flat pieces, as shale does.
Stratigraphy: lower part of the Upper Freeport Coal (= Number 7 Coal), Allegheny Group, Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Diamond Coal Mine, Linton, far-eastern Jefferson County, far-eastern Ohio, USA
Bituminous coal from the Cretaceous of Utah, USA.
Coal is a carbon-rich, biogenic sedimentary rock. It forms by the burial and alteration of organic matter from fossil land plants that lived in ancient swamps. Coal starts out as peat. With increasing burial and diagenetic alteration, peat becomes lignite coal, sub-bituminous coal, and then bituminous coal. Bituminous coals tend to break and weather in a blocky fashion, are relatively sooty to the touch, and are harder and heavier than lignite coal (but still relatively soft and lightweight). Discernible plant fossil fragments may be present on bituminous coal bedding planes - sometimes in abundance. Bituminous coals commonly have irregular patches of shiny, glassy-textured organic matter (vitrain).
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Info. from public signage at Wittenberg University's Geology Department (Springfield, Ohio, USA):
Origin of Coal
Coal is formed from accumulated vegetation that grew in peat-forming swamps on broad lowlands that were near sea level. Cyclothems indicate that the land must have been at a "critical level" since the change from marine to non-marine sediments shows that the seas periodically encroached upon the land.
Formation of Coal
The change from plant debris to coal involves biochemical action producing partial decay, preserval of this material from further decay, and later dynamochemical processes. The biochemical changes involve attack by bacteria which liberate volatile constituents, and the preserval of the residual waxes and resins in the bottom of the swamps where the water is too toxic for the decay-promoting bacteria to live. The accumulated material forms "peat bogs". The dynamochemical process involves further chemical reactions produced by the increased pressure and temperature brought about by the weight of sediment that is deposited on top of it. These reactions are also ones in which the volatile constituents are driven off.
Rank of Coal
The different types of coal are commonly referred to in terms of rank. From lowest upward, they are peat (actually not a coal), lignite, bituminous, and anthracite. The rank of the coal is the result of the different amounts of pressure and time involved in producing the coal.
Bituminous
Bituminous coal is a dense, dark, brittle, banded coal that is well jointed and breaks into cubical or prismatic blocks and does not disintegrate upon exposure to air. Dull and bright bands and smooth and hackly layers are evident. It ignites easily, burns with a smoky yellow flame, has low moisture contnet, medium volatile content, and fixed carbon and heating content is high. It is the most used and most desired coal in the world for industrial uses.
In the United States, the Northern Appalachian fields lead in production, followed by the interior fields of the Midwest.
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This sample comes from Utah's Bronco Mine, which reportedly started in the 1880s. The coal ranks as high-volatile C bituminous coal, which means it gives off less heat than high-volatile A or B bituminous coals. The former gives off about 11,500 British thermal units (Btu) of heat per pound of coal. The latter two give off about 14,000 and 13,000 Btu per pound, respectively.
Stratigraphy: coal horizon in the Ferron Sandstone Member, Mancos Shale, Upper Cretaceous
Locality: Bronco Mine (= Emery Deep Mine), Emery County, central Utah, USA
Cannel coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (cross-section view; field of view ~7.5 to 8.5 centimeters across)
Cannel coal is a scarce, fossil spore-rich variety of coal - it is hard and weathering-resistant, has a velvety to satiny luster, little to no stratification, and a conchoidal fracture. The differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal (lignite, bituminous, anthracite) are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
This eastern Ohio sample is from the Bedford Coal in the Pottsville Group, a Pennsylvanian-aged cyclothemic succession containing nonmarine shales, marine shales, siltstones, sandstones, coals, marine limestones, and chert ("flint"). The lower Pottsville dates to the late Early Pennsylvanian. The upper part dates to the early Middle Pennsylvanian. The Lower-Middle Pennsylvanian boundary is apparently somewhere near the Boggs Member (?).
The Bedford Coal occurs just below the Upper Mercer Limestone, which is often a flint-dominated interval. Lithologically, the Bedford ranges from carbonaceous shale to argillaceous coal to bituminous coal to cannel coal. The cannel coal in the Bedford was targeted for mining in the 1800s as a source of fuel. It was particularly useful in the manufacture of kerosene, an illuminating fuel. After the petroleum industry started in the 1860s, production of kerosene from cannel coal essentially ceased.
This sample is cannel coal in part and bituminous coal in part.
Stratigraphy: Bedford Coal, upper Pottsville Group, Atokan Stage, lower Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Tunnel Hill North Portal Outcrop (= Noland Tunnel's northern portal), ~1.75 air miles north-northeast of the town of Tunnel Hill, western Coshocton County, eastern Ohio, USA (~40° 16’ 33.27” North latitude, ~82° 01’ 53.04” West longitude)
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For more info. on cannel coal in general, see:
We, Corro Care Industries have been established in the year 1982 and are having our works and Registered Office at Vatva, Ahmedabad. Initially we were in the business of manufacturing all types of Acid Resisting Mortar and taking Turn-Key Projects for Acid Resisting Bricks / Tiles Linings. These products are being used widely in Chemical / Pharmaceutical / Petrochemical / Agro chemicals / Textiles and Fertilizer Industries who are using certain Chemicals which are prone to corrode M.S. / R.C.C., Storage Tanks, Vessels etc. We have successfully taken up the challenge of saving the Plant and Machinery of Chemical and other Industries from corrosion.
Corro Care Industries
Plote No: 4718, Phase IV,
Vatva,
Ahmedabad - 382445,
India.
Bituminous coal from the Cretaceous of Utah, USA.
Coal is a carbon-rich, biogenic sedimentary rock. It forms by the burial and alteration of organic matter from fossil land plants that lived in ancient swamps. Coal starts out as peat. With increasing burial and diagenetic alteration, peat becomes lignite coal, sub-bituminous coal, and then bituminous coal. Bituminous coals tend to break and weather in a blocky fashion, are relatively sooty to the touch, and are harder and heavier than lignite coal (but still relatively soft and lightweight). Discernible plant fossil fragments may be present on bituminous coal bedding planes - sometimes in abundance. Bituminous coals commonly have irregular patches of shiny, glassy-textured organic matter (vitrain).
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Info. from public signage at Wittenberg University's Geology Department (Springfield, Ohio, USA):
Origin of Coal
Coal is formed from accumulated vegetation that grew in peat-forming swamps on broad lowlands that were near sea level. Cyclothems indicate that the land must have been at a "critical level" since the change from marine to non-marine sediments shows that the seas periodically encroached upon the land.
Formation of Coal
The change from plant debris to coal involves biochemical action producing partial decay, preserval of this material from further decay, and later dynamochemical processes. The biochemical changes involve attack by bacteria which liberate volatile constituents, and the preserval of the residual waxes and resins in the bottom of the swamps where the water is too toxic for the decay-promoting bacteria to live. The accumulated material forms "peat bogs". The dynamochemical process involves further chemical reactions produced by the increased pressure and temperature brought about by the weight of sediment that is deposited on top of it. These reactions are also ones in which the volatile constituents are driven off.
Rank of Coal
The different types of coal are commonly referred to in terms of rank. From lowest upward, they are peat (actually not a coal), lignite, bituminous, and anthracite. The rank of the coal is the result of the different amounts of pressure and time involved in producing the coal.
Bituminous
Bituminous coal is a dense, dark, brittle, banded coal that is well jointed and breaks into cubical or prismatic blocks and does not disintegrate upon exposure to air. Dull and bright bands and smooth and hackly layers are evident. It ignites easily, burns with a smoky yellow flame, has low moisture contnet, medium volatile content, and fixed carbon and heating content is high. It is the most used and most desired coal in the world for industrial uses.
In the United States, the Northern Appalachian fields lead in production, followed by the interior fields of the Midwest.
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This sample comes from Utah's Bronco Mine, which reportedly started in the 1880s. The coal ranks as high-volatile C bituminous coal, which means it gives off less heat than high-volatile A or B bituminous coals. The former gives off about 11,500 British thermal units (Btu) of heat per pound of coal. The latter two give off about 14,000 and 13,000 Btu per pound, respectively.
Stratigraphy: coal horizon in the Ferron Sandstone Member, Mancos Shale, Upper Cretaceous
Locality: Bronco Mine (= Emery Deep Mine), Emery County, central Utah, USA
Anthracite coal from the Pennsylvanian of Pennsylvania, USA.
Anthracite coal is the highest-rank of coal. It forms by very low-grade metamorphism (anchimetamorphism) of bituminous coal. Anthracite is always black-colored, with a glassy texture, and is harder and heavier than other coals, although it is still relatively soft and lightweight for its size. In comparison with lignite and bituminous coal, anthracite is less sooty to the touch. Anthracite burns hotter than other coal types, due to its high carbon content (~90% C). It is also the cleanest-burning of all the coal ranks.
Anthracite is a scarce variety of coal. The highest concentration of anthracite on Earth is in the Pennsylvanian-aged coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania, USA. There is still some uncertainty in the details about the origin of Pennsylvania anthracite coal. In Colorado, an anthracite coal deposit occurs next to an igneous intrusion - the anthracite formed by heating from contact or hydrothermal metamorphism. It's been suggested that Pennsylvania anthracite was hydrothermally metamorphosed. The anthracite in Pennsylvania was originally deposited in coal swamps that were relatively high on ancient alluvial plains - those environments are usually not preserved in mountain belts (they get uplifted and eroded). In Pennsylvania, the high alluvial plain facies were downdropped and got preserved, resulting in anthracites representing different facies from those seen in bituminous coal fields.
Age: Pennsylvanian
Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site at or near the town of Hazelton (probably a coal mine), eastern Pennsylvania, USA
Heavily rusted remains of the boiler, of the "SS LAWRENCE".
The "LAWRENCE" was a 160ft.two-masted twin-screw iron steamer. She was built in 1884 by Kish, Boolds & Co. of Sunderland, England, and launched originally as "BORTONIUS".
The following year, coal was discovered in the tiny West Coast hamlet of Mokihinui (the first high-grade bituminous coal to be mined in New Zealand), and the Mokihinui Coal Company was established. A second coal seam was soon found, even larger than the first, and in 1889 the flourishing business purchased the LAWRENCE [victoriancollections.net.au/items/555577b3998fc21654210829].
Good fortune continued to smile on the young company, and in early 1891 it won a contract to supply coal to the NZ Railways.
But the good fortune ran out on April 28, 1891. From the up-river wharf where the Mokihinui Coal Co.’s one-mile tramway delivered the coal from the mines, the LAWRENCE set sail at about noon. She became lodged in the sandbar at the river mouth, managed to break free but, owing to her damaged propeller blades, she then drifted onto the beach. The next day she broke her back in heavy weather and was declared a total loss [paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT18910430.2.22].
As the LAWRENCE was its only ship, the Mokihinui Coal Co. was subsequently forced to hand over its newly-acquired rail contract to the Grey Valley Coal Company...
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In 1935 a ship’s bell was found near Westport, about 40km south of the Mokihinui River. It caused considerable local speculation because, at first, no-one recognised the name inscribed on the bell: BORTONIUS.
Outside of the stanton shelter.
A segment shelter manufactured by the Stanton Ironworks, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. The shop manufactured concrete air raid shelters, of which 100,000 tons were manufactured, principally for the air ministry. Reinforced concrete proved an ideal material for air raid shelters, being strong and resistant to shock with no deterioration with the passing of time. This type of segment shelter was of simple design and of low cost - any length of shelter could be built up from the pre-cast steel reinforced concrete segments. The segments were 20 inches wide; a pair of them formed an arch 7 feet high and transverse struts were provided to ensure rigidity. These fitted into longitudinal bearers which were grooved to receive the foot of each segment. Each pair of segments was bolted together at the apex of the arch and each segment was also bolted to its neighbour, the joints being sealed with a bituminous compound. The convenient handling of these segments enabled them to be transported on to sites where close access by motor lorry was not possible. Partly buried in the ground, with a suitably screened entrance, this bolted shelter afforded safe protection against blast and splinters.
On our trip down south, February 24, 2018. We stopped at Shag Point/Matakaea as I had never been there before. Matakaea is the name of the pa (fortified village). We have left Dunedin and going to stay in Timaru for a night before heading back to Christchurch.
Shag Point/Matakaea has a rich history, from early Ngai Tahu settlement to historic coalmining. The area has diverse marine life. It has interesting flora, is great for wildlife viewing, and is geologically fascinating.
Flat rock platforms provide an easy haul-out site for New Zealand fur seals, and cliff-top viewing areas allow you to observe seal behaviour without disturbing their rest.
Whalers discovered the first bituminous coal in New Zealand here in the 1830s. By 1862 the exposed coal seams were found to be commercially viable and were successfully mined until 1972, when flooding eventually closed shafts that extended under the coast. Evidence of coal mining is still obvious throughout the reserve.
Matakaea is jointly managed by DOC and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. Matakaea has Topuni status. The mana (authority) and rangatiratanga (chieftainship) of Ngai Tahu over the area is recognised publicly by this status. Ngai Tahu takes an active role in managing the natural and cultural values of the area.
For More Info: www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/p...
Late Dec 85. Bituminous concrete work in progress.
Photographs in this set taken by Hughes Trueman PTY LTD.
The other end of the Stanton shelter.
A segment shelter manufactured by the Stanton Ironworks, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. The shop manufactured concrete air raid shelters, of which 100,000 tons were manufactured, principally for the air ministry. Reinforced concrete proved an ideal material for air raid shelters, being strong and resistant to shock with no deterioration with the passing of time. This type of segment shelter was of simple design and of low cost - any length of shelter could be built up from the pre-cast steel reinforced concrete segments. The segments were 20 inches wide; a pair of them formed an arch 7 feet high and transverse struts were provided to ensure rigidity. These fitted into longitudinal bearers which were grooved to receive the foot of each segment. Each pair of segments was bolted together at the apex of the arch and each segment was also bolted to its neighbour, the joints being sealed with a bituminous compound. The convenient handling of these segments enabled them to be transported on to sites where close access by motor lorry was not possible. Partly buried in the ground, with a suitably screened entrance, this bolted shelter afforded safe protection against blast and splinters.
Cannel coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (cross-section view)
The Linton Lagerstätte is a famous fossil deposit at the Diamond Coal Mine in far-eastern Ohio. It occurs in channel-filling, fissile cannel coal in the lower Upper Freeport Coal. The Upper Freeport is about 9 feet thick at this locality - bituminous coal in the Upper Freeport interval was the target for mining. The fissile cannel coal at the base of the Upper Freeport was waste rock and discarded in a large pile. Fossils include plants (palynomorph microfossils), invertebrates (principally conchostracans), and vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles).
Cannel coals are odd varieties of coal. They don’t have the look & feel of ordinary coals such as lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite. Cannel coals are lightweight, as all coals are, but are surprisingly tight and solid - they hold up to natural weathering pretty well, considering they’re coals. They are not sooty to the touch, and have conchoidal fracture (smooth & curved fracture surfaces). Cannel coals usually lack the well-developed horizontal bedding & laminations seen in lignites and bituminous coals.
Not surprisingly, the differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
The Linton cannel coal is unusual because it is fissile - it breaks into thin, flat pieces, as shale does.
Stratigraphy: lower part of the Upper Freeport Coal (= Number 7 Coal), Allegheny Group, Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Diamond Coal Mine, Linton, far-eastern Jefferson County, far-eastern Ohio, USA
Cannel coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (7.2 cm across at its widest)
Cannel coal is a scarce, fossil spore-rich variety of coal - it is hard and weathering-resistant, has a velvety to satiny luster, little to no stratification, and a conchoidal fracture. The differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal (lignite, bituminous, anthracite) are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
This eastern Ohio sample is from the Bedford Coal in the Pottsville Group, a Pennsylvanian-aged cyclothemic succession containing nonmarine shales, marine shales, siltstones, sandstones, coals, marine limestones, and chert ("flint"). The lower Pottsville dates to the late Early Pennsylvanian. The upper part dates to the early Middle Pennsylvanian. The Lower-Middle Pennsylvanian boundary is apparently somewhere near the Boggs Member (?).
The Bedford Coal occurs just below the Upper Mercer Limestone, which is often a flint-dominated interval. Lithologically, the Bedford ranges from carbonaceous shale to argillaceous coal to bituminous coal to cannel coal. The cannel coal in the Bedford was targeted for mining in the 1800s as a source of fuel. It was particularly useful in the manufacture of kerosene, an illuminating fuel. After the petroleum industry started in the 1860s, production of kerosene from cannel coal essentially ceased.
The sample shown above is not high-quality cannel.
Stratigraphy: Bedford Coal, upper Pottsville Group, Atokan Stage, lower Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Tunnel Hill North Portal Outcrop (= Noland Tunnel's northern portal), ~1.75 air miles north-northeast of the town of Tunnel Hill, western Coshocton County, eastern Ohio, USA (~40° 16’ 33.27” North latitude, ~82° 01’ 53.04” West longitude)
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For more info. on cannel coal in general, see:
Balmedie Quarry opened in 1919 just outside the village of Belhelvie in Aberdeenshire which is 7 miles to the North of the city of Aberdeen. Covering an area of betweenn 6.41-6.58 hectares it produces a large volume and range of Bituminous mixtures characterised as Asphalt concrete and Hot rolled asphalts. Some of which were used in the road between Ellon and the Bridge of Don.
Aberdeenshire Council have owned this since 1932.
Roanoke from the M. Carl Andrews Overlook. Roanoke was established in 1852 and chartered in 1874, first named as Big Lick for a large outcropping of salt which drew the wildlife to the site near the Roanoke River. In 1882 it became the town of Roanoke, and in 1884 it was chartered as the independent city of Roanoke. The name Roanoke is said to have originated from an Algonquian word for shell, shells that were used as money. During colonial times the site of Roanoke was an important hub of trails and roads that led pioneers through the Blue Ridge mountains to the new frontier in Ohio and the Midwest. In the 1850s, Big Lick became a stop on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T) which linked Lynchburg with Bristol on the Virginia-Tennessee border. In 1870, the V&T became part of the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad(AM&O), a new line extending from Norfolk to Bristol, Virginia. The Financial Panic of 1873 destroyed the AM&O and it was bought up by a Philadelphia banking firm E.W. Clark & Co. The AM&O was then renamed Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W). Railroading in the U.S. was expanding rapidly in the U.S. in the latter half of the 19th century. The N&W brought people and jobs to the area and the Town of Roanoke quickly became an independent city in 1884. The opening of the coalfields in nearby Pocahantas made N&W prosperous and bituminous coal world-famous. Transported by the N&W and neighboring Virginian Railway (VGN), local coal fueled half the world's navies. The VGN merged with the N&W in 1959. The Norfolk & Western was famous for manufacturing steam locomotives in-house. It was N&W's Roanoke Shops that made the company known industry-wide for its excellence in steam power. New steam locomotives were built there until 1953, long after diesel-electric had emerged as the motive power of choice for most North American railroads. About 1960, N&W was the last major railroad in the U.S. to convert from steam to diesel power. In 1982, N&W was absorbed into the Norfolk Southern Railroad. Roanoke, Va. 27 February 2019
No I'm just kidding, the "door with no handle" is actually a boarded-up doorway.
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In Ocala, Florida, on March 6th, 2019, on the east side of Northeast 1st Avenue, south of Northeast 5th Street.
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Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names terms:
• Marion (county) (1002631)
• Ocala (2020611)
Art & Architecture Thesaurus terms:
• asphalt (bituminous material) (300012966)
• awnings (300254200)
• boards (flat objects) (300014616)
• concrete blocks (300374976)
• commercial buildings (300005147)
• damage (condition) (300068940)
• doorways (300002767)
• oblique views (300015503)
• paint (coating) (300015029)
• tears (condition) (300254138)
• white (color) (300129784)
• wood (plant material) (300011914)
Wikidata items:
• 6 March 2019 (Q57349898)
• boarding up (Q4931416)
• Central Florida (Q2920358)
• I (Q9893)
• March 6 (Q2399)
• March 2019 (Q31275158)
• North Central Florida (Q2916367)
• North Florida (Q7055353)
• S (Q9956)
• Second Seminole War (Q2976715)
• Treaty of Payne's Landing (Q865831)
Library of Congress Subject Headings:
• Concrete masonry (sh85030722)
University of Southampton Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics,
School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, "Bituplaning: A Low Dry Friction Phenomenon of New Bituminous Road Surfaces" By John Charles Bullas BSc MSc MIAT MIHT FGS May 2007 Thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Semi-anthracite coal in the Mississippian of Virginia, USA.
This is the best outcrop anywhere of the only economically significant Mississippian-aged coal occurrence in the world. The beds are structurally tilted - this occurred during the Allegheny Orogeny in the Pennsylvanian.
The coal bed shown here is the Merrimac Coal. Its rank is semi-anthracite coal, which results from very low grade metamorphism of bituminous coal. Adjacent beds are not metamorphosed. The Merrimac Coal (& the subjacent Langhorne Coal - not visible in this shot) have been mined in the past. Thin interbeds of fossiliferous clayshale are present within the Merrimac Coal.
Stratigraphy: Merrimac Coal, lower part of the upper member, Price Formation, Osagean Stage, upper Lower Mississippian
Locality: roadcut on the eastern side of Rt. 100, western end of Cloyds Mountain, south of the town of Poplar Hill, Pulaski County, Valley Coalfield, southwestern Virginia, USA (= locality shown in figure 9 of Bartholomew & Brown, 1992) (37° 10' 42.39" North latitude, 80° 42' 48.48" West longitude)
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Some info. from:
Bartholomew, M.J. & K.E. Brown. 1992. The Valley Coalfield (Mississippian age) in Montgomery and Pulaski Counties, Virginia. Virginia Division of Mineral Resources Publication 124. 33 pp. 2 pls.
Gensel, P.G. & K.B. Pigg. 2010. An arborescent lycopsid from the Lower Carboniferous Price Formation, southwestern Virginia, USA and the problem of species delimitation. International Journal of Coal Geology 83: 132-145.
Anthracite coal from the Pennsylvanian of Pennsylvania, USA.
Anthracite coal is the highest-rank of coal. It forms by very low-grade metamorphism (anchimetamorphism) of bituminous coal. Anthracite is always black-colored, with a glassy texture, and is harder and heavier than other coals, although it is still relatively soft and lightweight for its size. In comparison with lignite and bituminous coal, anthracite is less sooty to the touch. Anthracite burns hotter than other coal types, due to its high carbon content (~90% C). It is also the cleanest-burning of all the coal ranks.
Anthracite is a scarce variety of coal. The highest concentration of anthracite on Earth is in the Pennsylvanian-aged coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania, USA. There is still some uncertainty in the details about the origin of Pennsylvania anthracite coal. In Colorado, an anthracite coal deposit occurs next to an igneous intrusion - the anthracite formed by heating from contact or hydrothermal metamorphism. It's been suggested that Pennsylvania anthracite was hydrothermally metamorphosed. The anthracite in Pennsylvania was originally deposited in coal swamps that were relatively high on ancient alluvial plains - those environments are usually not preserved in mountain belts (they get uplifted and eroded). In Pennsylvania, the high alluvial plain facies were downdropped and got preserved, resulting in anthracites representing different facies from those seen in bituminous coal fields.
Age: Pennsylvanian
Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site at or near the town of Hazelton (probably a coal mine), eastern Pennsylvania, USA
Pyritic cannel coal/bituminous coal from the Pennsylvanian of Ohio, USA. (bedding plane view; field of view: ~6.7 centimeters across)
Cannel coal is a scarce, fossil spore-rich variety of coal - it is hard and weathering-resistant, has a velvety to satiny luster, little to no stratification, and a conchoidal fracture. The differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal (lignite, bituminous, anthracite) are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.
This eastern Ohio sample is from the Bedford Coal in the Pottsville Group, a Pennsylvanian-aged cyclothemic succession containing nonmarine shales, marine shales, siltstones, sandstones, coals, marine limestones, and chert ("flint"). The lower Pottsville dates to the late Early Pennsylvanian. The upper part dates to the early Middle Pennsylvanian. The Lower-Middle Pennsylvanian boundary is apparently somewhere near the Boggs Member (?).
The Bedford Coal occurs just below the Upper Mercer Limestone, which is often a flint-dominated interval. Lithologically, the Bedford ranges from carbonaceous shale to argillaceous coal to bituminous coal to cannel coal. The cannel coal in the Bedford was targeted for mining in the 1800s as a source of fuel. It was particularly useful in the manufacture of kerosene, an illuminating fuel. After the petroleum industry started in the 1860s, production of kerosene from cannel coal essentially ceased.
This sample is bituminous coal in part and cannel coal in part. The dark brassy-colored patch at right is a pyrite concretion.
Stratigraphy: Bedford Coal, upper Pottsville Group, Atokan Stage, lower Middle Pennsylvanian
Locality: Tunnel Hill North Portal Outcrop (= Noland Tunnel's northern portal), ~1.75 air miles north-northeast of the town of Tunnel Hill, western Coshocton County, eastern Ohio, USA (~40° 16’ 33.27” North latitude, ~82° 01’ 53.04” West longitude)
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For more info. on cannel coal in general, see: