Some mothers do 'ave 'em....

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

OK - I'll bite.

Swamps lay down similar layers of plant material.

Continue for a few million years, and then bury under kilometers of rock for a few hundred million more years. Allow weathering to bring it back to near the surface.

"Instant" coal. Or oil.

Andrew,

Quite so.

Coal petrologists can tell a lot about the source of coal and its depth of burial from microscopic examination. While terrestial swamps can produce coal I believe most is layed down in shallow marine environments. Certainly most of the Australian east coast coal was layed down in brackish to marine pools or embayments in the delta of a massive river. The river itself was probably smaller than the Ganges of Amazon but it was getting up there. It certainly extended to present day Victoria but there is pretty good evidence that it stretched to Antartica -obviously before the rifting that created the Southern Ocean (this last claim is based on the chemical similarities of zircon crystals found in the Sydney Basin to some found in situ in Antartica).

The rank (degree of alteration of the original material) of the coal gives the burial depth (assuming you know the geothermal gradient). For Sydney Basin coals it turns out that they were burried about 1km deeper than they are now. That 1km of rock has eroded away as the basement of the basin has uplifted.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by JimmyH155

Please note..David, from World Book Dictionary
TSUNAMI Quote: an oceanic tidal wave caused by a submarine earthquake or volcanic eruption .....

World Book Dictionary

From Encyclopedia Britanica: ... also called a seismic sea wave or tidal wave ..... The term tidal wave is a misnomer, for the wave has no connection with the tides. (my emphasis)

Even Wiki has: Tsunami are sometimes referred to as tidal waves. In recent years, this term has fallen out of favor, especially in the scientific community, because tsunami actually have nothing to do with tides.