Statistical Evaluation of the Seam Sequences of Some Australian Permian and Triassic Coals

In making any attempts to determine the depositional environments in which coal seams accumulated it would be useful to establish whether there is a pattern, or patterns, of development which the majority of the seams have followed. To this end, the distribution of types of coal seam sequences found in the standard petrographic profiles of about a hundred Australian coal seams of Permian and Triassic age has been examined statistically, using the "chi square test" with the limiting probability set at O·Gl.Results indicate that non-random conditions have probably prevailed during the deposition of most of the seams. More samples are needed for conclusive results.The plants, or some other internal feature of the swamp environment, have been the important controlling factor in the development of the seam sequences.Comparison has been made with some British Carboniferous coals.