Coal Rock () is a prominent

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit ''nunataq'') is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They are also called glacial islands. Examples are natural pyramidal peaks. ...

lying southeast of

Fierle Peak The Saratoga Table () is a high, flat, snow-covered plateau, long and wide, standing just south of Kent Gap and Lexington Table in the southern Forrestal Range, Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica. Discovery and name The Saratoga Table was discove ...

at the south end of the Forrestal Range,

Pensacola Mountains The Pensacola Mountains are a large group of mountain ranges of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Queen Elizabeth Land region of Antarctica. Geography They extend 450 km (280 mi) in a NE-SW direction. Subranges of the ...

. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photos, 1956–1966, and named by Dwight L. Schmidt, USGS geologist for two beds of

graphitic Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...

coal that are well exposed on the nunatak.Stewart, J., 2011. ''Antarctica: An Encyclopedia,'' 2nd ed. Jefferson, North Carolina and London, McFarland & Company, Inc. 1771 pp.

Geology

Coal Rock exposes about of the Permian Pecora Formation. At Coal Rock, it consists of gray to tan weathering, thin-bedded, fine-grained,

quartzose Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...

and

feldspathic Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspa ...

sandstone that contains many thin interbeds of carbonaceous and pyritic

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

. The sandstone is commonly cross-bedded and forms ledges. Two beds of graphitic coal, each about thick, are exposed at Coal Rock. These coal beds contain plant fossils including a glossopterid paleoflora of Permian age.Ford, A.B., Schmidt, D.L., Boyd Jr, W.W. and Nelson, W.H., 1978. ''Geologic Map of the Saratoga Table Quadrangle, Pensacola Mountains,'' ''Antarctica Map No. 9.'' scale 1:250,000. Reston, Virginia, US Geological Survey.

References

Rock formations of Queen Elizabeth Land Paleontological sites of Antarctica {{QueenElizabethLand-geo-stub