Outcrops of Tertiary coal-bearing units in sea cliffs of the Kenai Peninsula provide an excellent study area for volcanic ash partings in coals. Twenty mid- to late-Miocene, 50-cm to 3-m thick coal seams exposed in the sea cliffs about 10 km west of Homer contain an average of 10 volcanic ash or lapilli tuff partings each. The bedding relationships of the coal with any one parting cannot be predicted, and the contacts of the partings with the coal range from very sharp to predominantly gradational. These bedding relationships provide clues about the surface on which the ashes fell and on which the coal was accumulating. For example, some ashes fell in standing water, others on irregular subaerial surfaces.

The partings are in various stages of alteration to kaolinite and bentonite, and vary in thickness from a few millimeters to about 10 cm. The consistency and texture of the partings depend on the degree of alteration; the less altered partings display visible pumice fragments and euhedral feldspars, commonly within a finer grained matrix. Separate pumice fragments, excluding matrix, can also occur as partings in the coal. The more altered partings may be wet and plastic, or they may be well indurated claystones; the colors range from gray-yellow to dark brown. The indurated partings are more common in the older part of the section. The coal seams may be capped by volcanic ash partings and are commonly underlain by a pencil shale of nonvolcanic origin.

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