More Roots below coal.

Kevin Sharman, the coal geologist who sent me the photos has given me
permission to post this. I have put some more photos of the canadian coal
which show radiating root patterns from the former bases of bushes which
grew in place. You can see them at http://home.entouch.net/dmd/cancoal.htm

Kevin writes:
stringer of coal discussed in "camera case photo" beside red arrow - this is
loose coal laying on a ledge. The piece with vertical banding on the left
of the "J seam" photo is a loose chunk as well.

The seam was 1.5 meters thick, and most of what you see as coal has been
disturbed. This is a banded coal. Vitrinite layers in this coal do not
represent individual layers of bark, but woody tissue including bark that
has been coalified. At this rank (med volatile bituminous) there has been a
lot of compaction. The original textures that remain are only visible under
the microscope. The J seam ranges from 1.5 m to 8 m thick.

The few roots that seem to stop at the horizontal dark bed are outnumbered
by the dozens if not hundreds of fine roots that extend to the level of the
camera case. Also, the contention that the roots look disjointed is caused
in part by the roots going in and out of the plane of the rock face.

Check out new photos 124 and 125 - these clearly show a shrubby root system
radiating from a common point. 125 is to the right side of 124.This was one
comment from Payne - why shrubs not trees. The answer is the ecological
succession of the pioneering vegetation - [edited by grm] shrubs, then when
enough of a mat is built up, trees. This is why big tree roots are
uncommon.
****end of Kevin's part****

The new photos are at
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/cancoalrootsabovebigroot.jpg
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/cancoalradiatingroots.jpg

And roots under a second coal seam from that area

http://home.entouch.net/dmd/RootsDifferentCoalSeamCanada.jpg
Received on Sat Dec 6 10:55:51 2003