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Coal Measures and Coal Mining in Iowa, including paleontology and a discussion on the coal formation; also the methods of mining by Russell T. Hartman, 1898

Coal Measures and Coal Mining in Iowa by Russell T. Hartman, 1898, Page 172

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[page]171.[/page] The coal period was a time of crustal instability. The strata of this period record frequent, but usually slight; movements of subsidence and elevation. The coal was formed in marshes and shallow bays in the erosion hollows of the underlying strata. In and about these marshes the luxuriant carboniferous flora flourished. The plants and their leaves, spores, and fruits fell into or were carried by running water into the marshes where they became submerged and formed peat bogs. When the subsidence of the surface was such as to allow the sea to encroach slowly upon the land the water in the marshes was kept at a rather constant depth above the mass of peat at the bottom, and they became basin-shaped peat bogs sometimes many feet in depth
 
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