West Virginia is known as the Mountain State, but 300 million years
ago it was a vast, featureless coastal swamp extending for hundreds of
miles and barely rising above sea level. Geologists call this time the
"Carboniferous Period." It was a time when the atmosphere was
being dramatically depleted of carbon dioxide (the "greenhouse gas")
and vast tropical forests of primitive ferns and towering primitive trees
ruled the planet.
Coal seams are fossilized accumulations of plants which lived and died in swamps that were so devoid of oxygen that few microbes or other critters could survive to feed on their remains. The first phase of coal known as "peat" thus developed. These swamps were interwoven with intricate, meandering river channels which eventually covered things with mud and silt. Subsequent deep burial by more sediments in succeeding geologic ages resulted in heat and pressure which transformed the peat into coal. Generally speaking, every 12 inches of coal thickness represents approximately 10,000 years of continuous peat accumulation. Coal seams in West Virginia average 3 feet in thickness, although they occassionally can be as thick as 25 feet.
Good fossil specimens are difficult to find in coal
seams themselves because the detail has been destroyed in the process of
coalification. However, in the interburden or rock layers between successive
coal seams it is possible to find outstanding specimens, although these
too are relatively rare. The best plant fossil specimens are found in rock
layers that were deposited in flood events-- not the Noah's Ark kind, but
the kind that would go on in New Orleans every so often if it wasn't for
man-made levees holding mother nature back.
Since the late 1700's coal in West Virginia has been
mined as a domestic fuel, for industrial boilers, electric power generation,
and steel making. There are a host of other uses too, including the manufacture
of aspirin, water filter elements, and certain plastics. Usually ignored
during the mining process is the treasure of plant fossils the rocks contain.
As a geologist and engineer I have collected many fine specimens from mining
operations in central West Virginia. This web site is intended to share
some of these with interested persons and serious collectors.