One of the basic mineral resources of Texas is abundant deposits of lignite in Eocene rocks of the Gulf Coastal Plain.

The Eddleman Coal (Thrifty Formation, Cisco Group) in Young County, Texas, yielded a spore and pollen flora which was classified into 37 genera and 65 species. Ten species are regarded as new and are assigned to existing genera. A single new species is described and placed within a new genus.

Lignite or low-rank coal is a major energy resource in Texas, providing energy since 1850. Prior to 1930, and the advent of abundant natural gas and oil, lignite was a major energy source.

Papers in this volume were presented at the Gulf Coast Lignite Conference held in Austin, Texas, June 1976.
Papers were edited, in some cases extensively, and subjectively grouped by discipline, paralleling that of their presentation at the Conference.

This report provides a data base for decisions about lignite mining and reclamation in the Wilcox Group of East Texas. Kaiser (1974, 1978) estimates that about 12.2 billion short tons of potentially strip-minable lignite resources occur in East and South Texas.

Texas lignite occurs in three Eocene (lower Tertiary) geologic units--the Wilcox Group, Jackson Group, and Yegua Formation--and in three ancient depositional systems--fluvial, deltaic, and strandplain/lagoonal.

Official estimates of United States coal resources published during the past 15 years vary from less than 1.5 to 3.5 trillion metric tons (1.7 to 3.9 trillion short tons). These differences imply that a high degree of uncertainty exists in resource assessment.

In the subsurface and at the outcrop, waters in argillaceous deposits of the Calvert Bluff Formation (lower Eocene, Wilcox Group) are brackish to saline.

Organic petrological, organic geochemical, and chemical analyses of Tertiary (Paleocene to Eocene) coals (to a 2,000-ft [610-m] depth) from the Wilcox, Claiborne, and Jackson Groups of Texas reveal characteristic properties of these coals.

Five coal basins in the Rocky Mountain Foreland of the western United States--San Juan, Greater Green River, Piceance, Powder River, and Raton--contain, by virtue of their tremendous coal tonnage, 522 Tcf (14.7 Tm3) coalbed gas resources, or 77 percent of the nation's total of 675 Tcf (19.1