ABSTRACT

The occurrence of stylolitic coal seams in the Pottsville quartzitic sandstone of Lookout Mountain, Alabama, has been described by Stockdale as representing residual coal resulting from solution of quartz along fractures crossing the bedding at an angle of 25°. A photograph is submitted which shows four sections of two inch drill cores. These drill core sections, derived from the same source as the material used by Stockdale, show that the stylolitic coal seams are an integral part of an intricate cross-bedded structure.

The percentage composition of the rock consists essentially of 86.7 per cent of quartz, 13.3 per cent sericite and .009 per cent coal. Had solution occurred along a fracture as claimed, the residue would have been sericite instead of coal. That sericite would have become a residue is certain because most of the partings of the laminae of the crossbedded structure is sericite which has not been removed by solution. The facts therefore do not support the solution theory to account for the origin of the stylolitic coal seams.