A review of the Traralgon Formation in the Gippsland Basin - a world classbrown coal resource

The Taralgon Formation contains by far the largest brown coal resources in the Gippsland Basin, and is probably unequalled in the World for any single basin deposit of its type. Out of an indicated resource of 345 billion ton nes (Gt), approximately 10 Gt are currently listed as economically recovera ble reserves. Low ash content (ave. 2.9% db) but higher organic sulphur con tents (ave. 1.72% db) largely reflect the near-coastal depositional environ ments under which much of the original extensive peat swamps accumulated. T he contained plant matter and coal types indicate a high-latitude rainfores t environment where rainfall and temperatures were higher than present, and where lithotype cycling occurs. The coals appear to have accumulated at sp ecific high stand periods of coastal onlap towards the end of the Middle an d Late Eocene, and eustatic sea-level changes play an important role in dev elopment of the coal seams. The timing for maximum coal accumulation takes place at the apogee of a greenhouse world shortly before the cooling trends into the early Oligocene. During this time over 100 Gt of carbon was seque stered into these coal deposits. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.