>For the moment I don't care what problems a rational interpretation of
>the data may cause to the various models of origins. Yours is the same
>diversion I picked Glenn about. I know what I see in specific coal
>seams, and they look allochthonous. If some coals are allochthonous and
>some are autochthonous, then so be it, but I have never seen a coal seam
>in Alabama or Kentucky which I would call autochthonous (an in situ
>swamp deposit).
When you and I first discussed coal, I pointed out to you the meandering
sandstone channel that goes through some of the coals in Illinois. It is
difficult to see how the coal AND a meandering channel could be deposited
from water. It appears that coals in Illinois at least are autochthonous.
"Growth of the delta might continue through the major period of
peat accumulation. Under such conditions the coal bed would be
interrupted by channels (or 'wash-outs,' as they are called in
England), the channel fill being contemporary with the coal.
Such channels probably would be bordered by natural levees,
similar to those marginal to distributaries of the Mississippi,
which would prevent frequent flooding of the swamp and
introduction of clay or sand splitting the coal deposit. In the
Illinois Basin such channels contemporary with the coal appear to
be uncommon, though at least two examples are known."~Harold R.
Wanless, James R. Baroffio, and Peter C. Trescott,"Conditions of
Deposition of Pennsylvanian Coal Beds," Geol. Soc. America Spec.
Paper 114 pp 105-142 (1969), p. 112, in Charles A. Ross and June
R. P. Ross, Geology of Coal, (New York: Hutchinson Ross
Publishing Co., 1984, p. 92
**
"Example f1: No. 5 coal of southeastern Illinois and adjoing
parts of Indiana (Coal V) and western Kentucky (No. 9 coal).
Figure 1 is based upon information obtained from approximately
3000 electric logs, drill-core logs, and outcrop descriptions,
and on a map by Potter (1962a) and an earlier mapping by D. R.
Gednetz. It illustrates the substrata of the coal, indicating
that one stream entered the Illinois Basin from the north, just
west of the LaSalle Anticline, and eight separate streams entered
from the east in Indiana and kentucky. As the channel sandstones
are commonly about 1 mile or less in width, the records sampled
are not always close enough together to permit the accurate
outlining of these narrow channels."~Harold R. Wanless, James R.
Baroffio, and Peter C. Trescott,"Conditions of Deposition of
Pennsylvanian Coal Beds," Geol. Soc. America Spec. Paper 114 pp
105-142 (1969), p. 113-114, in Charles A. Ross and June R. P.
Ross, Geology of Coal, (New York: Hutchinson Ross Publishing Co.,
1984, p. 93-94
**
"Figure 4 (modified from a map by Trescott) shows that the
No. 5 coal underlies all of the area except for the locality of a
meandering channel averaging about three-quarters of a mile in
width in the main alluvial valley. ~Harold R. Wanless, James R.
Baroffio, and Peter C. Trescott,"Conditions of Deposition of
Pennsylvanian Coal Beds," Geol. Soc. America Spec. Paper 114 pp
105-142 (1969), p. 115-116, in Charles A. Ross and June R. P.
Ross, Geology of Coal, (New York: Hutchinson Ross Publishing Co.,
1984, p. 95-96
The scale of the map is of southern Illinois! Would you agree that it is
difficult to see how a channel could be deposited along with the coal? Why
is there so little organic material in the sands of the channels?
glenn
Adam, Apes, and Anthropology: Finding the Soul of Fossil Man
and
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm