Research Project
Full description This project was developed through financial support of the Australian Coal Association Research Program. There are multiple components associated with this project. 1. The first component is a printable illustrated atlas that provides background to understand the context of coal macerals and their thermal maturity, how and why they differ within and between coal seams within a geological age or basin, and how petrographic analyses are conducted. The atlas also contains an extensive catalogue of images that illustrate different macerals and minerals and their associations for a suite of coal samples. Comparisons between to the International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP), and the Australian and American classification systems are also provided in the atlas. 2. The second product is a downloadable digital library of scans of coal petrographic blocks. The digital library contains 70 zip files of scanned images from open access coal samples that were obtained from exploration drilling by the Geological Survey of Queensland. This folder is ~50 GB. 3. A 3rd party microscope emulator software called Fossil ViewerTM is provided as part of this project, thanks to the in-kind support of Hilgers Technisches Büro. The zip files with calibrated image scans can be uploaded into Fossil ViewerTM to conduct petrographic analyses such as measuring vitrinite reflectance and maceral composition, using a classification of your choosing. The zip files are accompanied by a folder of additional image scans that can be perused independently of the software. 4. Worksheet exercises are provided with data collected by Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) and by The University of Queensland (UQ) that guide you towards consistent identification of macerals, similar to a round robin with accredited petrographers. There is also a "how to" section within the illustrated atlas to guide you through the software and how to conduct a reflectance and maceral analysis using the software. 5. A spreadsheet with the sample list and accompanying data is provided.