Factors controlling the vegetation distribution and coal-forming environments in a strike-slip basin. The Pennsylvanian Peñarroya-Belmez-Espiel Basin, southern Spain
Coal-forming environments require humid to perhumid conditions. Tectonics governs the size, location and availability of coal seams developed in such environments. While large Pennsylvanian paralic basins generated thick and continuous coal seams, many other small coeval basins, which were tectonica...
| Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 2016 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad de Huelva (UHU) |
| Repository: | Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva |
| Language: | English |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ariasmontano.uhu.es:10272/24581 |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10272/24581 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Peñarroya-Belmez-Espiel Basin Coal-forming enviroments Vegetation distribution 25 Ciencias de la Tierra y del Espacio 2506.02 Geología del Carbón |
| Summary: | Coal-forming environments require humid to perhumid conditions. Tectonics governs the size, location and availability of coal seams developed in such environments. While large Pennsylvanian paralic basins generated thick and continuous coal seams, many other small coeval basins, which were tectonically active, developed a puzzling succession, with carbonaceous deposits that varied in size, thickness and the nature of the coal-forming flora. This study, conducted in the Pe~narroya Belmez-Espiel coalfield, a Variscan strike-slip basin in the south of Spain, provides insights into this subject. The coal seams analysed, generated in different depositional environments, have quantitatively different palynological assemblages. Lacustrine coals are dominated by lycopsids; distal alluvial plain/marginal lacustrine coals are dominated by sphenophytes and tree ferns, and middle alluvial fan coals are dominated by sphenophytes, tree ferns and lycopsids. This means that when conditions were favourable for peat accumulation, peat accumulated regardless of the nature of the available flora. |
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