Everglade swamp

Spackman, W. Cohen, A. D. Given, P. H. Casagrande, D. J. "The Comparative Study of the Okefenokee Swamp and the Everglade s-Mangrove Swamp-Marsh Complex of Southern Florida, Field guidebook printed for Geol. Soc. Amer. Pre-convention field trip, 15-17 November 1974 (subsequently published by Coal Research Section, Pennsylvania State University, 1976), 403 pp. 

Coal is Interspersed as individual beds within other types of sedimentary rock beds, including sandstones, limestones, clays, shales, and mixtures of these materials. The plant material that ultimately became coal deposits was accumulated in upland bogs, coastal or near-coastal swamps, or della plains. It is envisioned that the conditions were somewhat similar to the conditions existing today in the Okefenokce Swamp in Georgia or the Everglades of Florida. These areas may have varied from a few acres in several hundreds of square miles (hectares/square kilometers). Hence, the variation in ihe occurrence of coal as we find it today. 

In the freshwater peat swamp, bacterial reduction of organic sulfur in plant tissues may be an important process in the formation of pyrite (93). Altschuler et al. (93) proposed that in the Everglades peat, pyrite precipitates directly by the reaction of HS or organic sulfide (produced by reduction of oxysulfur compounds in dissimilatory respiration) with ferrous iron in the degrading tissues. Pyrite formation in low-sulfur coal may be accounted for by this process. 

Figure 5 Solid state NMR spectra of peat from the Everglades, and Okefenokee Swamp. Major organic structural components originating from plant biopolymers are identified in the spectra. Note the preferential loss of cellulose with depth (time) in the peats, and the selective preservation of resistant biomolecules, such as hgnin...

Casagrande, D.J., Siefert, K., Berschinski, C. and Sutton, N., 1977. Sulfur in peat-forming systems of the Okefenokee Swamp and Florida Everglades origins of coal. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 41 161—167. 

Front cover image (clockwise from top right) (1) Rice paddy under cultivation, Wargal (near Hyderabad), Andhra Pradesh, India (Photo by K. Ramesh Reddy) (2) pitcher plants (Sarracenia flava) in wet prairie of Tate s Hell Swamp, Florida (Photo by Todd. Z. Osborne) (3) mangrove swamp. Lost Man s River, Everglades National Park, Florida (photo by Todd Z. Osborne) and (4) shore of Blue Cypress Lake, Blue Cypress Marsh, Florida (Photo by Todd Z. Osborne). 

---