Cobequid Coal EarthCache

Cobequid Coal

The Cobequid Mountains,  also sometimes referred to as the Cobequid Hills, is a Canadian mountain range located in Nova Scotia in the mainland portion of the province. Geologically, the Cobequid Mountains are considered part of the Appalachians. The range stretches from Cape Chignecto in Cumberland County in the west through to Pictou County in the east.

The Cobequid Mountains trace their geologic history to the Precambrian and Devonian ages; consequently the mountains are composed of a combination of sediments, granites, and volcanic rock all of which has been crushed and folded by continental drift when this part of Nova Scotia was located at the centre of the Pangea supercontinent. Subsequent erosion over millions of years has resulted in the present-day low range of mountains and rolling hills.

The sedimentary deposits in the Cobequid Mountains hold several coal deposits in various basins, stretching across the northern slope of the mountains in Cumberland County (from Joggins through River Hebert to Springhill) and on the southern edge at Debert.

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements; chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dead plant matter decays into peat and is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. Vast deposits of coal originates in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian times.

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Questions:

1. What is the length and height of the coal outcrop?

 2. What is the texture, colour, hardness of the coal outcrop?

 3. What is the elevation at ground zero?

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