Sedimentation, an appropriate field of research in the natural history of coal beds

Potential studies in the accumulation of coal-bearing strata as being important in further understanding the natural history of coal are discussed. These lines of approach include regional isopach studies of the stratigraphic unit containing coals, and the individual coal beds; bulk petrographic and lithofacies studies of the non-coal strata; biofacies and ecologic studies; and, tectonism during the deposition of the sedimentary units concerned.