Coal Rock

Coal Rock (83°29′S 50°38′W) is a prominent nunatak lying 4 nautical miles (7 km) southeast of Fierle Peak at the south end of the Forrestal Range, Pensacola Mountains. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photos, 1956–1966, and named by Dwight L. Schmidt, USGS geologist for two beds of graphitic coal that are well exposed on the nunatak.[1][2][3]

For another nunatak in Antarctica with a similar name, see Coal Nunatak.

Geology

Coal Rock exposes about 200 meters (660 ft) of the Permian Pecora Formation. At Coal Rock, it consists of gray to tan weathering, thin-bedded, fine-grained, quartzose and feldspathic sandstone that contains many thin interbeds of carbonaceous and pyritic siltstone and shale. The sandstone is commonly cross-bedded and forms ledges. Two beds of graphitic coal, each about 1 meter (3.3 ft) thick, are exposed at Coal Rock. These coal beds contain plant fossils including a glossopterid paleoflora of Permian age.[3]

References
  1. "Coal Rock". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  2. Stewart, J., 2011. Antarctica: An Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Jefferson, North Carolina and London, McFarland & Company, Inc. 1771 pp. ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6
  3. Ford, A.B., Schmidt, D.L., Boyd Jr, W.W. and Nelson, W.H., 1978. Geologic Map of the Saratoga Table Quadrangle, Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica Map No. 9. scale 1:250,000. Reston, Virginia, US Geological Survey.
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