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Peter D. Warwick

Publications and source records attributed to Peter D. Warwick.

170 records · Page 10Linked to original sources
USGS1989

Comparative facies formation in selected coal beds of the Powder River Basin

Petrologic studies of thick coal beds [Warwick, 1985; Moore, 1986; Moore and others, 1986; Moore and others, 1987; Warwick and Stanton, in press], which build on sedimentological interpretations [Flores, this volume] of associated units, provide data to interpret and contrast the varieties of peat formation in the Powder River Basin. Detailed analyses of the composition of coal beds lead to more complete interpretations regarding the depositional environment on a regional and local scale. Our efforts in the Powder River Basin [areas A-D in fig. 1 of Flores, this volume] have resulted in a series of site-specific studies that interpret the types of peat formation from the arrangement of different facies which comprise the coal beds and from the spatial form of the coal beds. Our approach was to use a combination of megascopic criteria for facies sampling, and where only core was available, to analyze many interval samples to discriminate facies by their maceral composition. Coal beds in the Powder River Basin are composed of laterally continuous, compositional subunits of the bed (facies) that can be discerned most easily in weathered highwall exposures, less readily in fresh highwalls, and very poorly in fresh-cut core surfaces. In general, very low ash (

Montana, Wyoming↗
USGS1988

Petrographic characteristics of the Wyodak-Anderson coal bed (Paleocene), Powder River Basin, Wyoming, U.S.A.

Six lithofacies of the thick ( > 30 m) Wyodak-Anderson subbituminous coal bed of the Fort Union Formation (Paleocene), Powder River Basin, Wyoming, can be delimited using megascopic and petrographic data. Previous lithofacies analysis of the rock types associated with the Wyodak-Anderson bed suggested that raised peat accumulated in restricted parts of an inland flood plain. The peat bodies were separated by deposits of contemporaneous, possibly anastomosed channels. In this study, megascopic descriptions from four mine highwalls of the Wyodak-Anderson coal bed were found to be similar to facies defined by microscopic data from core and highwall samples. The data indicate that the upper and lower parts of the coal bed are rich in preserved wood remains (for instance, humotelinite), whereas the middle part of the bed contains comparatively larger amounts of material that resulted from degradation and comminution of the peat (e.g. eugelinite). The facies are interpreted to be the result of different chemical and biological environments at the time of peat formation.

Wyoming↗
USGS1987

Evolution of fluvial styles in the Eocene Wasatch Formation, Powder River Basin, Wyoming

Vertical and lateral facies changes in the lower part of the Eocene Wasatch Formation in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming represent an evolution of fluvial systems that varied from meandering to anastomosing. The meandering facies in the lower part of the study interval formed in a series of broad meanderbelts in a northnorthwestflowing system. Upon abandonment this meanderbelt facies served as a topographic high on which a raised or ombrotrophic Felix peat swamp developed. Peat accumulated until compaction permitted encroachment of crevasse splays from an adjoining transitional facies which consists of deposits of a slightly sinuous fluvial system. Crevasse splays eventually prograded over the peat swamp that was partly covered by lakes. Bifurcation, reunification, and transformation of crevasse channels into major conduits produced an anastomosing system that was characterized by diverging and converging channels separated by floodbasins drowned by lakes and partly covered swamps.

Wyoming↗