Distinctive features:  
Black, dirty, hard to crumbly rock. Burns with a bright-yellow flame.

Colour: 
Dull, earthy black to glistening submetallic black.

Texture and granularity: 
Massive, brittle.

Composition: 
Highly compacted plant debris.

Field associations: 
Represents remains of ancient forests that flourished mainly on tropical deltas. Occur mostly as bands are found in rocks of other ages, although some thin coal bands are found in rocks of other ages.

Varities:
Cannel coal, which is a soft brownish-black; coal, which is brittle, black, sometimes with glistening bands; and anthracite, which is brittle, black, glistening.

 

USA (Pennsylvania), southern Russia, Ukraine, UK, China, Africa.

 

Domestic and industrial fuel.