CompuServe Messages

It isn't uncommon to find carbonaceous material in marine sediments. Sometimes it is clearly wood, other times it is too homogenous to identify the source. If you found the carbon in the same stratigraphic level, not above or below, that would be interesting enough to closely examine the walls of the pocket to try to determine the nature of the original material. If the "coal" is friable and loose as you allude to, and not compact, like chunks of anthracite or bituminous, then the source is probably the carbon residue of some buried vegetable (perhaps broccoli). The pyritized baculite is definitely indicative of significant organic material in the sediments in a relatively oxygen poor environment. Where abouts in Kansas, near Topeka? Near NewTek? Michael Read action !re 115196 Enter reply. (/EXIT when done) 1: Yes, in Topeka, in the cut hillside behind the Westside Mall. 2: ABoutbout fifty steps from the parking lot. 🙂 Newtek's new offices 3: are just a block or two from this namall, they moved from downtown. 4: 5: Yes, The coal was friangleble and not compact. I diddid examine it andseveral 6: bits in the field to seefor for clues of its origin, but did not find any 7: recognizable patterns like veis ns or grain or stems. 8: I may search again on the bits I brought home. Meanwhile, I'm 9: yearning for a better micrscopioscope, one for biological materials 10: and high magnicfications, and one of the typee (a thafofor examining 11: small specifmans ens like this at relatively low maginificationsnifications. 12: Are those called field microscopes? 13: 14: How does pyrite accumulate in an environment like this? 15: This pyrite is a nice copper color, it's quite pretty. 16: I'm tempted to chip away at some of it to expose themore of the s17: hell, though. Offhand I don't see the link between 18: organic materialmateiralrial and iron and sulfide., ; and I'm sure some kind of a19: neaaeorbic mbacteria., that's one way for it to deposit, right? 20: 21: What, you don't like broccoli? 🙂 22: /post Message # 115219 posted