Qcmbr said:
: How does coal fit into this gelogical column . . . I'm fairly sure there are no coals being formed today - is that correct?
No. Coal forms whenever thick deposits of unrotted, woody plant remains are buried and compressed for long enough periods of time. In past times, particularly the Carboniferious Era, climate and other conditions were far more conducive to producing coal than they are today. It's quite likely that in swampy areas that are gradually sinking, such as in the bayous of Louisiana, coal is forming deep under the swamps.
Coal was not formed in a single great cataclysm like Noah's Flood. Some coal formations contain the proof of this. For example, in some coal mines, the coalified roots of tree stumps can be seen embedded in the coal roof of the mine, and surrounding them are the imprints of dinosaur footprints. Clearly, the beasts were standing up to the trees and browsing on the foliage. This cannot have happened if the forests were massively churned up and deposited as giant globs of plant matter, as young-earth creationists claim happened in Noah's Flood a few thousand years ago.
: ..so is oil halfway coal?
No. Oil is produced by poorly understood processes that, whatever they are, involve deep burial and heat. The most accepted theory is that oil is the remains of huge accumulations of microscopic sea plants that sank to the bottom of anaerobic seas and resisted decomposition.
: I would have though coal would appear at every level of the geological column
It does. But just as chalk doesn't appear in every location, neither does coal. You have to have the right swampy or wet conditions to produce rapid accumulations of woody plant material, along with a relatively rapid sinking of the land, such as is found in the Louisiana bayou country.
: and be at different stages of production.
It is. The various forms -- lignite, bituminous and anthracite -- are in different stages of formation.
: Even if teh majority is 300 million years old - wheres teh 100 million year old midway coal?
It's around. You'll have to do your own research to find it, though.
AlanF