Study on REEs as tracers for late permian coal measures in Bijie City, Guizhou Province, China

Analyses of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) in 13 coal samples collected from Late Permian coal measures of Bijie City in western Guizhou Province were conducted using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass-Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results indicated that REEs patterns were not controlled by materials from the sea, whereas the contribution of land plants was about 1%. The major sources of REEs were from terrigenous material as indicated by negative Eu anomaly. There were similar distribution curves of REEs between Bijie's coal and Emeishan basalt. M12 coal seam, which had the highest ΣREE, appeared near the boundary between Longtan Formation and Changxing Formation, which was closely correlated to the eruption of Emeishan basalt. The Emeishan basalt contributed to REEs enrichment of M12. So the sources of REEs were controlled by terrigenous material, and the Emeishan basalt was the predominant source of terrigenous material, which dominated the enrichment and pattern of REEs in Late Permian coal measure from Bijie.