Stephen Rippington - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Stephen Rippington
ABSTRACT Coal scree of Tertiary Eureka Sound Group coals was found burning on the 24th August 201... more ABSTRACT Coal scree of Tertiary Eureka Sound Group coals was found burning on the 24th August 2011 during expedition CASE 12 of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (Germany) on southern Ellesmere Island. The burning outcrop is located below a steep canyon wall of a small river, which is draining the Prince of Wales Icefield. The river erodes tectonically disturbed coal bearing sediments of the Mount Bell (TMB) and Mount Lawson Formations (TML) of the Eureka Sound Group. These form scree that obviously was set on fire by spontaneous combustion of the coal pieces, which are scattered all over the talus. The surrounding clasts of claystone and siltstone of the TML/TMB sediments are strongly affected by the heat of the burning coal, i.e. they are pyrometamorphically altered forming all sorts of reddish and beige hard clinker. Indications for pyrometamorphism related to the spontaneous combustion of coal on Ellesmere Island were previously mentioned for example from the Fosheim Peninsula, where one location is called “clinker” in Dawson et al. (1976). Ricketts (1994) labeled two spots in a section north of Strathcona Fiord with the term “bocanne”, a name specifying “naturally burning shale banks” according to the definition of Crickmay (1967). Recently, Piepjohn et al. (2007) and Estrada et al. (2009) reported the occurrence of paralava in the Stenkul Fiord and Split Lake areas on southern Ellesmere Island. One coal fire near Split Lake could be dated to have burnt 3.3 ± 0.5 Ma ago in the Middle Pliocene (40Ar-39Ar incremental heating dating on wholerock silicate paralava). At all these localities the coal bearing Eureka Sound Group sediments of Tertiary age crop out over wide areas. The burning coal scree location gives the possibility to understand in more detail how the widespread occurrences of clinker, i.e. the previous sites of pyrometamorphism, occurring around Strathcona Fiord and Stenkul Fiord were formed. References Crickmay, C.H. (1967): A note on the term bocanne. American Journal of Science, 265, 626-627. Dawson, M.R., West, R.M., Ramaekers, P. & Hutchison, J.H. (1976): New evidence on the palaeobiology of the Eureka Sound Formation, Arctic Canada. Arctic, 28, 110-116. Estrada, S., Piepjohn, K., Frey, M.J., Reinhardt, L., Andruleit, H. & von Gosen, W. (2009): Pliocene coal-seam fires on southern Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic. N. Jb. Geol. Paläont. Abh., 25/1, 33-52. Piepjohn, K., Estrada, S., Reinhardt, L., von Gosen, W. & Andruleit, H. (2007): Origin of iron-oxide and silicate melt rocks in Paleogene sediments of southern Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Nunavut. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 44, 1005-1013. Ricketts, B.D. (1994): Basin analysis, Eureka Sound Group, Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere Islands, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 439, Ottawa, 119 pp.
ABSTRACT Coal scree of Tertiary Eureka Sound Group coals was found burning on the 24th August 201... more ABSTRACT Coal scree of Tertiary Eureka Sound Group coals was found burning on the 24th August 2011 during expedition CASE 12 of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (Germany) on southern Ellesmere Island. The burning outcrop is located below a steep canyon wall of a small river, which is draining the Prince of Wales Icefield. The river erodes tectonically disturbed coal bearing sediments of the Mount Bell (TMB) and Mount Lawson Formations (TML) of the Eureka Sound Group. These form scree that obviously was set on fire by spontaneous combustion of the coal pieces, which are scattered all over the talus. The surrounding clasts of claystone and siltstone of the TML/TMB sediments are strongly affected by the heat of the burning coal, i.e. they are pyrometamorphically altered forming all sorts of reddish and beige hard clinker. Indications for pyrometamorphism related to the spontaneous combustion of coal on Ellesmere Island were previously mentioned for example from the Fosheim Peninsula, where one location is called “clinker” in Dawson et al. (1976). Ricketts (1994) labeled two spots in a section north of Strathcona Fiord with the term “bocanne”, a name specifying “naturally burning shale banks” according to the definition of Crickmay (1967). Recently, Piepjohn et al. (2007) and Estrada et al. (2009) reported the occurrence of paralava in the Stenkul Fiord and Split Lake areas on southern Ellesmere Island. One coal fire near Split Lake could be dated to have burnt 3.3 ± 0.5 Ma ago in the Middle Pliocene (40Ar-39Ar incremental heating dating on wholerock silicate paralava). At all these localities the coal bearing Eureka Sound Group sediments of Tertiary age crop out over wide areas. The burning coal scree location gives the possibility to understand in more detail how the widespread occurrences of clinker, i.e. the previous sites of pyrometamorphism, occurring around Strathcona Fiord and Stenkul Fiord were formed. References Crickmay, C.H. (1967): A note on the term bocanne. American Journal of Science, 265, 626-627. Dawson, M.R., West, R.M., Ramaekers, P. & Hutchison, J.H. (1976): New evidence on the palaeobiology of the Eureka Sound Formation, Arctic Canada. Arctic, 28, 110-116. Estrada, S., Piepjohn, K., Frey, M.J., Reinhardt, L., Andruleit, H. & von Gosen, W. (2009): Pliocene coal-seam fires on southern Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic. N. Jb. Geol. Paläont. Abh., 25/1, 33-52. Piepjohn, K., Estrada, S., Reinhardt, L., von Gosen, W. & Andruleit, H. (2007): Origin of iron-oxide and silicate melt rocks in Paleogene sediments of southern Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Nunavut. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 44, 1005-1013. Ricketts, B.D. (1994): Basin analysis, Eureka Sound Group, Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere Islands, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 439, Ottawa, 119 pp.