Organic petrology in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries: The Newcastle contribution

Abstract

The paper describes the development of coal petrology, then organic petrology, over a period of approximately 175 years around and in Newcastle upon Tyne (England). From 1833 until 1950, the basis of study was essentially transmitted light microscopy. In this period, perhaps the supreme contribution was the work of Hutton, Lindley, and Witham, who demonstrated the vegetable nature of coal in 1833. A major Scottish legal case, the ‘Boghead Controversy’ of 1853, in which ‘Newcastle’ was much later to be involved, was not finally resolved until Blackburn and Temperly confirmed the true nature of the relationship between the modern alga Botryococcus and the algal coals some 80 years later. In the early part of the 20th century, works by Hickling on the ‘coal belt’ and Hickling and Marshall on the cell structures of vitrinites were important as was Raistrick's substantial contribution to the founding of the field of palynology through his microspore correlation studies on coal seams from the coalfields of northeast England and Lancashire. Large-scale organisational changes in the Department of Geology at Newcastle in the period 1950 to 1989 took place with the development of the Organic Geochemistry Unit (OGU) in which organic petrology was a major component. Organic petrology and organic geochemistry were major components. There was almost entire replacement of transmitted light microscopy by reflected light procedures as the principal means of studying crustal organic matter microscopically. Widespread collaboration with industry, particularly with oil companies, which, with the University and the Research Councils, provided invaluable support to the research group over many years. Considered here are the results of investigations across the expanding field of organic petrology, covering the development of equipment and relationships between maceral properties, the varied effects of carbonisation treatments, and the influence of igneous activity on crustal organic matter. There were further radical changes in the composition of the research group after the completion of the national Earth Science Review in 1989. The Institute of Fossil Fuels and Environmental Geochemistry (FFEGI) was formed with a further substantial increase of both staff and postgraduate students. Organic petrology as a component was much reduced, although reflected light studies continued on coals from the offshore coalfields of northeast England, and transmitted light studies, almost exclusively related to the study of organic facies, returned. The output of organic petrologists virtually ceased. Most effective research groups, however, shift their emphases with time. FFEGI occupied a substantial and successful international research niche within the environmental field, as well as being still heavily committed to petroleum geochemistry until 2003 when FFEGI was integrated within the new School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.