Reflectance and petrology profile of a partially combusted and coked bituminous coal seam from British Columbia

Abstract

A partially combusted and coked coal seam from Aldridge Creek, British Columbia, Canada, was studied using reflected light microscopy. Three zones, namely combustion, distillation and unaltered coal were detected. Combustion had taken place in the uppermost part of the coal seam, immediately below the melted roof rock, the only evidence of combustion being the presence of coke showing oxidation rims. The distillation zone encompassed most of the coal seam; different stages of carbonization were evident in the samples from this zone, with a coke subzone occurring at the top and a precarbonization subzone at the base. Samples from the coke subzones show granular anisotropy; the reflectance and bireflectance of medium grained mosaic are higher than those measured on fine grained mosaic in the same samples from this zone. An unaltered coal zone occurred at the base of the coal seam.