Sulphur and carbon isotopic composition of power supply coals in the Pannonian Basin, Hungary

The majority of the sulphur in these coals occurs in the organic form. All studied sulphur phases are relatively rich in 34S isotopes (δ34Sorganic = + 12.74‰, δ34Spyrite = + 10.06‰, on average). This indicates that marine bacterial sulphate reduction played a minor role in their formation, in the sense that isotopic fractionation was limited. It seems that the interstitial spaces of the peat closed rapidly during early diagenesis due to a regime of high depositional rate, leading to a relative enrichment of the heavy sulphur isotopes.