If you are going to a swamp like the one in (A), make sure you bring your boots because swamps are full of mud and organic material. The organic material comes mostly from plants that have died. Over millions of years this carbon-rich mixture may be preserved as a bed of coal like the black layer in (B). Do you see the opening cut into the layer of black coal? That is the entrance to an old coalmine.
(A) Division of Natural Resources, Navaho AML Reclamation and (B) Chris Keane, American Geological Institute, courtesy of Earth Science World Imagebank
Last modified January 6, 2004 by Lisa Gardiner.
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