Coal

A large amount of vegetable matter is accumulated in lagoons and swamps through the continual cycles of growing and dying plants. This accumulation of vegetable matter is called peat bogs and they can be several feet thick and up to over a hundred feet thick. The peat begins to disintegrate and decompose through the action of Bacteria and other microorganisms. Over time sediments and rocks cover the layer of peat which is cut off from air. The pressure from the sediment on top forces out the water and volatile gases turning the peat into a carbon material called coal. The greater the pressure on the peat, the higher the grade of coal is formed. The depth of the Peat beds over any period of time will vary depending on the climate and topography.

There are five grades of coal; Lignite, Subbituminous, Bituminous, Superbituminous and Anthracite. Lignite and subbituminous have a fairly high concetration of water and will tend to crumble when exposed to air. Bitiminous coal is more stable and is used in industry and railraods. Anthracite is the purest form of coal with very little water content.

Coal beds were generally formed during the Carboniferous period but some also date to the Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary periods. The process of creating deep beds of peat requires thousands of years of accumulation of vegetable matter. Some beds several feet deep can be formed in a matter of years while much larger beds can take thousands of years to form. It takes approximately ten feet of organic material to form about one foot of coal. The total amount of coal estimated to be in the ground exceeds the amount of plant life available at one time. Instead many thousands of years would be required to form the estimated amount of coal. This does not include the other types of fossil fuels such as oil and gases. It is believed that it takes millions of years for the coal beds to be formed.

The peat beds were formed by a mass transporation of vegetable matter at one time such as from a flood. This theory is supported by the presence of plants not indicative of lagoons or swamps as well as the mixture of fossils from freshwater and saltwater organisms in the same coal beds. Sometimes trees are found in an upright position indicating that they did not dissintegrate when becoming buried. Also, some trees are found upside down indicating they were buried with a large amount of debris. Coal can be formed in the lab in a matter of hours which suggests that coal does not require millions of years to form but instead was formed rapidly.

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