oa Organic Petrological and Geochemical Insights into Peat Formation Within the Late Oligocene Pernik Basin, SW Bulgaria

The petrographic and organic geochemical characteristics of Pernik coals indicate that they formed through the accumulation of biomass derived from predominant gymnosperm plants under dysoxic conditions in water-logged environments. The abundance of woody tissues mixed with varying amounts of detrital organic matter suggests that peat-formation occurred in densely but unevenly forested swamps, dominated by cypress- and cedar-type conifers with an understory of shrub- and macrophyte-/grass-type angiosperms. A temperate humid climate during the deposition of Pernik coal can be assumed based on the predominance of conifers.