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If you're reading this on a computer, chances are that it's running on coal.
In the year 2000 United States coal production was over one billion tons, and
more than 60% was
used to generate electricity. In New Mexico, coal fired power
plants produce over 90% of the electricity on line. On a national scale as well,
odds favor coal 2
Origins
There is little doubt that coal comes from organic matter. It bears the imprint of leaves, ferns, seeds, tree stumps and the occasional shell. Detritus settles and decays in the stagnant pools common to swamps. Anaerobic bacteria deprive it of oxygen, leaving carbon and minor amounts of sulfur, iron, zinc or lead.
In its formative years, coal migrates between layers of impermeable rock, solidifying into viscous pools. Over time, it is heated, contorted and compressed by the dictates of geological fortune. But there is no agreement on how or why the material crops up where it is found.
Did it migrate as aqueous sediment to its present location,
(allochthonous
theory)?
Did it accumulate in the local area (autochthonous, in-situ hypothesis)?
Or was it cast upon polystrate fossils at the time of the Great Flood, (Creationist belief)?
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