Definition
Coal balls are permineralized peat, mainly found in Upper of Europe and North America but also in some Chinese Permian coals. Coal balls are predominantly calcium carbonate which has precipitated in the cell lumina and spaces between the plants within a peat formed in a mire (Scott and Rex, 1985).
Formation
Peat accumulates in wetland environments (mires such as swamps and bogs) where the accumulation of organic matter is faster than its decay. Studies on modern peat-forming environments indicate that the two main sources of water are from throughflow (rheotrophic) and rainfall (ombrotrophic) (Moore, 1987). In general the breakdown of plant material (cellulose and lignin) predominantly through the action of bacteria causes a decrease in pH. However, during the Carboniferous in Tropical Euramerica, in particular, mineral charged waters flowing through rheotrophic peats precipitated calcium carbonate, usually in the form of calcite. The calcite precipitated not only within...
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© 1978 Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc.
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Scott, A.C. (1978). Coal balls. In: Middleton, G.V., Church, M.J., Coniglio, M., Hardie, L.A., Longstaffe, F.J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3609-5_49
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3609-5_49
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