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Factors controlling the vegetation distribution and coal‐forming environments in a strike‐slip basin. The Pennsylvanian Peñarroya‐Belmez‐Espiel Basin, southern Spain
Author(s) -
González Felipe,
Moreno Carmen,
Lorenzo Erica,
Márquez Gonzalo
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
terra nova
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.353
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-3121
pISSN - 0954-4879
DOI - 10.1111/ter.12205
Subject(s) - pennsylvanian , geology , structural basin , peat , sedimentary depositional environment , coal , paleontology , alluvial fan , tectonics , paleozoic , coal mining , geochemistry , archaeology , history
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 Peñarroya‐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.