A REVIEW OF SULPHUR IN COAL: WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO THE TELKWA DEPOSIT, NORTH-WESTERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
The Jura-Cretaceous coal seams of the Currier, Mist Mountain, &thing and Gates formations generally formed in delta or strand plain environments with little marine influence. The sulphur contents of coal from these formations is therefore generally low, nearly always less than I % and often less than 0.5 %. Coalbearing formations of the Cretaceous Nanaimo and Skeena groups were deposited in coastal areas with more marine influence. Consequently sulphur contents are more variable and tend to be higher. It is therefore important to study aspects of sulphur in Cretaceous coal seams such as the seams in the Skeena Group at Telkwa (Figure I).
Mircro-organisms and the presence of syngenetic pyrite
Summary Certain beds of the Scottish Lower Carboniferous Oil Shale Group contain numerous small granules of pyrite. Isolation and subsequent solution of this pyrite has revealed the presence of a hitherto unknown group of microfossils clearly contained within the pyrite. Two new monotypic genera, Pyritosphaera and Pyritella, are described and their essential role in the production of hydrogen sulphide is suggested in relationship to the formation of syngonetic pyrite.
Correlation between the δ34S of pyritic and organic sulfur in coal and oil shale
The δ34S of pyritic (Y) and organic (X) sulfur in high-sulfur Illinois Basin coals and the Saline Zone of the Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado, U.S.A., oil shale of the Green River Formation exhibit a linear relationship (Y = 1.16X − 4.8; R2 = 0.98). This relationship implies that a common mechanism resulted in the incorporation of sulfur in two different depositional settings. They were formed in an environment where bacterial sulfate reduction and plant assimilation were the two major pathways of sulfur incorporation and where dissolved sulfate concentration was high. Bacterial sulfate reduction has apparently produced large kinetic isotope fractionation effects in the high-sulfate-concentration environment. In contrast, low-sulfur coals from the Illinois Basin and the Leached and Mahogany Zones of the Piceance Creek were apparently formed in environments where the dissolved sulfate concentration was lower and where bacterial sulfate reduction, if it occurred, did not produce significant kinetic isotope fractionation.