>Because of the general lack of stumps in coal, because of vertical
>fossil tree-trunks (usually without attached roots - I've never seen any
>with attached roots but I understand there are some) immediately above
>and below some coal seams, and because of the wide lateral extent of
>thin bedding structures in coals, my observations strongly suggest to me
>that coal was formed by organic matter deposited out of water (known as
>allochthonous.
There are lots of stumps, some upright on several levels in Nova Scotia.
Coffin and Rupke have studied these in some detail, and I believe both of
them have published their work in scientific journals. Their findings,
based not on surmise, but on experimental data using the only surviving
relatives of the Carboniferous flora, led them to conclude the trees could
have been transported in upright and buried in situ. The roots associated
with these plants, Stigmaria, by form genus name, are present in abundance
in the sediments. These root-like structures were likely transported with
the debris flow that entombed the trees, since it seems highly unlikely
that Stigmaria could penetrate soil. Rather the roots, which spun off
spirally arranged rootlets, and had somewhat the appearance of bottle
brushes, appear to have been designed to penetrate peat, and to hold
upright the quite large superstructures of these plants by spiraling
through the vegetative substratum of a peat bog. The rootlets, about the
diameter of a pencil, and blunt ended, were made up of very thin walled
cells with no apparent strengthening features. The root itself grew from a
terminal bud which was quite blunt and appears ideal for penetrating peat,
but quite incapable of penetrating soil. Since these are found, often
disconnected from the host plant, in carboniferous sandstone, the
conclusion that both trunks and Stigmaria were transported seems to me to
be inevitable.
The so-called "seat earths" or "soil horizons" that underlie coals in many
areas, have also been used as evidence of autochthonous origin. However, a
careful analysis of the supposed soils reveals that they rarely have enough
clay minerals to be typical soils, and they rarely show any degraded
organic material. A number of papers have been written onthis subject, and
it is not a closed case in either direction.
Art
http://chadwicka.swau.edu