Petrology of the Pond Creek coal bed in Eastern Kentucky

The Middle Pennsylvanian Breathitt Formation Pond Creek coal bed was examined along two cross-sections in Pike and Martin countries in the Eastern Kentucky coal field. Along the north-south profile the sulfur content increased markedly to the top of the bed. In the eastern portion of the east-west profile the coal bed is marked by a high-vitrinite, high-ash bone (shaley coal) lithotype within the top half of the bed and by a thin clarodurite-vitrinertoliptite-rich durain at the top of the bed. A northeastward-plunging anticline, termed here the Belfry anticline, marks the boundary between the high sulfur coal beds in the west and the appearance of the bony horizon on the east. The coal and the interval between the rider and the coal bed both thin across the anticline which was active at the time of deposition.