Anisotropic fragments in strongly folded and faulted coals from the Rocky Mountain area of southeast British Columbia

Abstract

The "Mammoth" coal seam in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, was structurally thickened to 100 m as a result of Laramide folding and faulting. Samples from the coal seam, examined using reflected-light microscopy, include thermally altered coal macerals, their by-products (e.g., pyrolytic carbon), and, in addition, heat-affected preoxidized coke.The heat-affected residues are composed of material formed by friction produced from faulting of the coal-bearing strata. The pyrolytic carbon was formed from the distillation of coal and from coal tar pitch.The occurrence of preoxidized, heat-affected vitrinite suggests that the Mammoth coal seam was oxidized before faulting.