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This massive machine is used in the open cut process to mine coal. The fossils below are both uncovered by these machines, and the exposed fossils are then destroyed by the machines in the process of digging for coal.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The strip mining process removes the overburden, exposing the coal, which is then collected by the huge machines to be stockpiled to produce energy. As can be seen, the process lays waste to the environment.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The machines expose the layers laid down millions of years ago. The coal layer is relatively thin at this site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The coal in this area is not of high quality, but it can be burnt to provide energy.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The fossils are also exposed and destroyed in this process.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This map is of the Balkan Peninsula showing basins that existed during the Tertiary (66.4 million - 1.6 million years ago). Subtropical vegetation formed peat deposits in shallow, swampy waters along the basin margins. Subsequent burial and heating of the peat created lignite.
Importantly for our purposes, it shows the extent of the Dacian Basin, also called Lake Oltenia, which covered most of Romania during the Tertiary. It is the source not only of the peat, but also of the marl which underlies it, and the associated molluscs and gastropods, including a rich variety of Melanopsis (sp.) shells, typically with raised ridges on the whorls and with pronounced growth rings.
The map is adapted from Jasko S: Lignitbildung im Pliozaen in Suedost-Europa; Lignite formation in the Pliocene of southeastern Europe (In German). Braunkohle 1973; 25: 67-71.
Shells from the ancient lake.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This photo shows a piece of ancient wood, found deep in the earth, from one of the ancient forests of the area.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Sometimes the wood or peat or coal burns or oxidises with enough heat to turn surrounding clay into a brick like compound, as shown in this photograph.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Usually, however, this wood becomes coal, which is mined with large machines in either open cut or deep mines.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This is a photo of an endocast, in which clay has hardened around the branch of a tree, and has completely replaced the wood.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
