SUMMARY

The ratio of thickness before compaction to thickness after compaction in the peat to coal series, is directly related to in situ moisture content by volume. Rheological parameters are greatly dependent on that moisture content and control the kind of distortion that took place during compaction. The resulting structures now enable compaction ratios to be determined and five stages to be recognised from near-floating vegetation in a forested swamp to bituminous coal. The stages are the accumulation of unloaded peat, forest loading, penecontemporaneous sediment loading, loading by the geological column and coalification by heat.