| This study examines the distribution and modes of occurrence of major and minor inorganic elements and organically linked sulfur in the subbituminous Castlegate A, Wattis, Hiawatha, Lower Hiawatha, Upper O'Connor, and Lower O'Connor A seams, Upper Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation, Wasatch Plateau coal field; Gilson seam, Upper Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation, Book Cliffs coal field; and Wasatch seam, Upper Cretaceous Frontier Formation, Coalville coal field, Utah. Whole coal samples were analyzed for 26 elements using INAA and XRF spectroscopy. Mineralogical analyses were obtained by examining low-temperature coal ash with a SEM equipped with EDX spectroscopy. Direct organic sulfur was measured using an EPM.;The variability of concentration with depth for analyzed elements shows the study coals contain few discernable partings. The major elemental concentration variability is due to contact with shaley coal layers at the seam margins.;Mineralogical analyses of the Wasatch Plateau and Book Cliffs seams reveal abundant Ca-, Fe-, Ti-bearing illite/smectite, quartz, and calcite; minor dolomite, andalusite/kyanite/sillimanite, analcime, wollastonite, and halite/sylvite; and accessory rutile, anorthite, pyrite. Mineralogical analysis of the Wasatch seam, Coalville coal field reveals an abundance of Ca-, Fe-bearing illite/smectite and quartz with accessory rutile and sylvite.;Six of the seams from the Wasatch Plateau are proposed stratigraphic equivalents. This study suggests that the chemical distributions of the Hiawatha III and Upper O'Connor seams are significantly different from those of the Hiawatha equivalents. The stratigraphically higher Wattis seam possess a chemical distribution similar to the Hiawatha equivalents. Other seams that are stratgraphically higher or lower than the Hiawatha seams show significant differences in elemental concentrations and distribution.;The mean elemental concentrations from the nine Wasatch Plateau seams are very similar to the elemental concentrations of the Gilson Seam, Book Cliffs coal field. These two fields were deposited in similar wave-/river-dominated deltaic depositional settings. The Wasatch seam, Coalville coal field was deposited in an alluvial plain environment, and its chemical distributions are significantly different from those exhibited by the Wasatch Plateau and Book Cliffs coal fields.;Data in this study establish a post-depositional, pre-coalification sulfur enrichment in pyritic and organic sulfur, probably due to contact with marine and brackish water sediments at seam margins and bacterial reduction of sulfate. |
