Comparison of the petrography, palynology and paleobotany of the Stockton coal bed, West Virginia and implications for paleoenvironmental interpretations

Abstract

The Stockton coal bed (Middle Pennsylvanian) is a relatively high ash coal composed primarily of moderately thin banded, sparsely thin banded, and nonbanded coal (splint and cannel coal). Comparisons of petrographic, palynologic, and paleobotanic data gathered from the same sample sets from a single column of the Stockton coal bed indicate that compositional correspondences among the sets exist regardless of coal type. Some correspondences are believed to exist because of original plant constituents and others because of the paleoenvironment of peat formation. Using some combination of these data is critical when interpreting paleoenvironmental conditions because (1) a direct correspondence is lacking between many of the data and (2) each of the three data sets provides a unique and important perspective on the paleomire. The Stockton paleomire in the area of this study supported a diverse flora that consisted of both small and arboreous lycopsids, small ferns and tree ferns, calamites, cordaites, and pteridosperms. There appear to have been two successions of Lycospora spore-dominated, vitrinite-rich, liptinite-poor peat formation, which were followed by inertinite-rich peat formation marked by a tree fern-dominant spore assemblage and abundant unidentifiable plant tissues. These are interpreted to be two water-laden or topogenous peat formational stages followed by slightly domed, better drained peat formation.