File:Cannel coal (Tennessee, USA) 3.jpg

English: Cannel coal from Tennessee, USA. (public display, entrance building to Olentangy Indian Caverns, central Ohio, USA)

Cannel coal is a scarce, fossil spore-rich variety of coal - it is hard and weathering-resistant, has a velvety to satiny luster, little to no stratification, and a conchoidal fracture. The differences in physical characterstics between cannel coal and other ranks of coal (lignite, bituminous, anthracite) are due to the organic matter content. Cannel coals are composed principally of fossil spores (sporinite phytoclasts). Garden-variety coals are composed principally of a mix of altered fragmented plant debris that was originally woody tissue, leaves, bark, fungi, and spores. Cannel coals are generally interpreted to have formed in pond, lagoon, or channel facies within a larger coal swamp setting.

This sample is attributed to Tennessee. No additional information is provided. If correctly attributed, the sample may be from the occurrence reported by Ashley (1918, p. 113): "In Tennessee cannel coal is mined only south of Jellico, about 2 miles from Newcomb in Campbell County, where for some years it has been mined by the Jellico Cannel Coal Company. The bed has an average thickness of 30 to 36 inches and lies about 1,800 feet above sea level. Benches of cannel coal of small lateral extent occur at Bon Air and Whitwell and at a few other places in the state."

Age: probably Pennsylvanian

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For more info. on cannel coal in general, see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannel_coal

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Reference cited:

Ashley, G.H. 1918. Cannel coal in the United States. United States Geological Survey Bulletin 659. 127 pp. 8 pls. (pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0659/report.pdf)