Re: Coal and YEC models

From: Bill Payne (bpayne15@juno.com)
Date: Sat Jul 27 2002 - 00:58:02 EDT

  • Next message: Glenn Morton: "RE: Coal and YEC models"

    On Fri, 26 Jul 2002 04:58:36 -0700 "Glenn Morton"
    <glenn.morton@btinternet.com> writes:
    >
    > David Campbell wrote on Thursday, July 25, 2002 5:02 PM
    >
    > >A couple of additional considerations:
    > >
    > >Not all plant biomass makes it into coal. Various organisms,
    > >including certain bacteria, protists, and fungi can consume wood, and
    > >many others can digest less durable plant tissue such as leaves.
    > >Lignitized wood from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic commonly is full of
    > >holes from shipworms and other wood-boring bivalves (which have
    > >symbiotic bacteria and protists to digest the cellulose). This also
    > >raises the question of how long the wood had to sit exposed on the
    > >seafloor for the shipworms to make their holes, which can raise
    > >problems for flood geology models.
    >
    > This consumption also raises the quantity of plant matter which must
    grow in
    > the first place to account for the coal we see. Thus in the
    calculation I
    > presented the other day, if half of all wood is eaten, one must have 2
    > world's full of tropical rain forests.

    I think it was Jack Pashin, who is at the U of AL where David now is, say
    that the Cretaceous and later coals were commonly degraded by bacteria,
    but the Pennsylvanian coals were not degraded. Do you agree with this
    David? If so, to what do you attribute the _lack_ of degradation of
    Pennsylvanian coals?
    >
    > >A variety of coal deposits are not currently economical to mine and
    > >may be omitted from some databases. Don't forget the Triassic rift
    > >valley coals in the Atlantic coast states and the Cretaceous coals in
    > >the Plains (in Canada and the U.S.) in calculating total volume.

    It's been years since I've seen the lignite deposits of south Alabama,
    but I seem to remember them as looking like peat - full of roots and
    certainly not banded like the typical Pennsylvanian coals of the eastern
    US. Coals of this type would be swamp deposits and not transported.
    What is the morphology of the Triassic and Cretaceous coals you mention?
    >
    > The quantity of coal in John Hunt's work is all in the world, including
    thin seams.

    Does Hunt include lignite as coal? What about peat?

    Bill

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