New observations on the Middle Fork Eel River coal-bearing beds, Mendocino County, California, USA

Mid-19th century reports of “immense” coal outcrops in the Middle Fork Eel River (MFER) drainage near Round Valley in California's northern Coast Ranges fueled the early geological interest in this area, with mine development the primary focus of many studies. It was not until Samuel G. Clark's 1940 “Geology of the Covelo District, Mendocino County, California,” that the coal was placed in its regional geologic context and assigned to the Miocene, a determination that relied primarily on a Desmostylus hesperus molar found in shale overlying the coal and an associated equivocal, though Miocene-compatible, marine molluscan fauna. Our investigation of the MFER coal-bearing beds has provided new data from foraminifera, marine mollusks, fish remains, and the first reported fossil plants, which as a whole support Clark's Miocene age assignment. We also present an updated stratigraphy proposing under modern-day stratigraphic protocols that the informal name Sand Bank beds (SBb) be used in place of the Temblor Formation to refer to the SBb coal-bearing fluvial-marine unit. Analysis of the SBb stratigraphy and sedimentology reveals the presence of a fluvial system that flowed from a distal upland region southward toward the paleocoast of California. An abundant diverse palynoflora containing lycophytes, ferns, conifers, and mesic, thermophillic herbaceous and woody angiosperms indicates the drainage flowed through a coastal swampy forested bottomland and estuarine environment before emptying into a coastal basin. Presence of Taxodium-like wood, foliage, pollen, and other “hydrophiles” suggests the MFER coal was a local mire buried by the progradation of the SBb fluvial system during a regressive phase, an interpretation to be tested with future field work and detailed compositional analysis of the coal.