A remote coal deposit revisited: Middle Jurassic coals at Kulhoj, western Germania Land, northeast Greenland

In 1908, members of the Danmark Expedition discovered a coal deposit in a very remote area in western Germania Land, close to the margin of the inland ice in northeast Greenland. The deposit was, however, neither sampled nor described, and was revisited in 2009 for the first time since its discovery. The outcrops found in 2009 amount to approximately 8 m of sediment including a coal seam of 2 m thickness. More outcrops and additional coal deposits most certainly are to be found, pending further fieldwork. The deposits are Middle Jurassic, Callovian, in age and were deposited in a floodplain environment related to meandering river channels. Spores and pollen in the lower fluvial deposits reflect abundant vegetation of ferns along the river banks. In contrast, a sparse spore and pollen flora in the coals show a mixed vegetation of ferns and gymnosperms. Based on proximate and petrographic analyses the coals are classified as medium-rank high-grade coal. Their composition is dominated by inertinite and vitrinite. and they represent deposits laid down in a freshwater mire. No evidence of marine incursion has been found. The coal seam studied does not include liptinite-rich coals such as those present in the same lithostratigraphic unit elsewhere in northeast Greenland, but loose blocks in the area suggest their presence in unknown parts of the succession. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.