During the Carboniferous period, Virginia was equatorial and the warm seas supported abundant life and the deposition of lime se
diments. The limestones produced from these sediments contain fossils of bryozoans and relatives of sea urchins and sand dollars. On land, coastal swamps formed along what is now the Appalachian Plateau. Tree ferns, horsetail rushes, and other plants grew in abundance in these swampy lowlands. This warm, tropical environment was the original source of what natural resource mined throughout this area during the past century?
The coal was produced in the carboniferous period by the deposition of the dead remain of the plant and the animals. The steamy swamps present at the time of carboniferous period allowed the thick peat to form, which eventually got buried in the ground and by the action of the heat and the pressure, the peat formed coal, which is mined now.
