A New Accumulation Model of Coal Seams in France Extensional Basins

This paper, based on the sedimentary features of the coal seams in the typical extensional (faulted) coal basins between two inland mountainous areas of the Central Massif (France) deals with the accumulation mechanism and the corresponding sedimentary-tectonic conditions of these thick coalbeds, and proposes a new coal accumulation model for the inland lacustrine-basin thick coalbeds. The presence of a great number of gravity-flow sediments such as detrital flow, diluted slurry flow or turbidity-current sediments in the coal seams, and that of the contemporaneous gravity slump and deformation structure in the coal seam itself bath indicate that thelacustrine environment in the accumulation of the thick coalbeds was characterized by the relatively deep flood and violent sedimentation. This model can not only interpret reasonably the accumulation mecha nism of the thick coalbeds developed in the fault basins in the Central Massif, France, but also show its features distinctively from those of the accumulation model of the traditional thick coalbeds.