Coal lime
In contrast to the Kulm , which is characterized by clastic sediments , the coal limestone is the calcareous shallow water facies of the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippium) of northwestern Europe. The carbonate deposits can reach a thickness of several hundred meters.
Paleogeography
On the southern edge of Laurussia (the continent that was formed in the Devonian by the collision of Laurentia (North America) and Baltica (Northern Europe and Russia)), limestone sedimentation was very fossil-rich in the Lower Carboniferous .
Coal-limestone facies
The coal-limestone facies stretched from Ireland / England , Belgium and the Ardennes over the slate mountains on the left bank of the Rhine to Poland . In the area of England, the marine carbonate sedimentation was divided into several high zones (above all the London-Brabanter massif and the Norman threshold). Boss animals - reef limestone , rubble limestone and dark bituminous limestone were deposited .
At fossils mainly are bryozoans , corals , brachiopods (brachiopods) goniatites and crinoids survived. The thickness of the coal lime reaches 300–700 meters and is interlocked with the Kulm facies to the south by reef debris and calcareous turbidite .