Seminal Insights Concerning the Variety of Sidertic Structures and Variable Genesis and of Sideritic Occurrences: An Unexplored Source of Palaeontological Information (Sydney Coalfield, Middle Pennsylvanian, Canada)

Abstract

Reported are descriptions of twelve samples representing a variety of sideritic structures, including nodules mostly from roof shale of the Middle Pennsylvanian Sydney Coalfield, Canada. The co-occurrence of fossiliferous nodules and compression fossils in the shaley roof rocks at Point Aconi enhance greatly palaeontological information. Newly discovered in a coal seam, and part of the sample, is a 40 mm thick continuous sheet-like layer of siderite with abundant permineralized-like-compressed small to micron-sized structures in a rather evenly-sized sideritic matrix, probably indicating a genetic origin different from that of the nodules. Methods include some thin-section, and two X-Ray analysis. However, large systematic sampling is a prerequisite to explore that situation, which additionally could provide faunal information for Euromerican correlation.