Torbanite

{{Short description|Type of fine-grained black oil shale}} {{distinguish|Torbernite}} {{use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} [[File:Torbanite pm.jpg|thumb|Photomicrograph of torbanite, from Bathgate, Scotland]] '''Torbanite''', also known historically as '''boghead coal''' or '''kerosene shale''', is a variety of fine-grained black oil shale. It usually occurs as lenticular masses, often associated with deposits of Permian coals.<ref name=tehfuyen/><ref name=lee>{{Cite book | last = Lee | first = Sunggyu | title = Oil Shale Technology | publisher = CRC Press | page = 20 | year = 1990 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N0wMCusO6yIC&pg=PA20 | isbn = 978-0-8493-4615-6 | accessdate = 2008-05-11}}</ref> Torbanite is classified as lacustrine type oil shale.<ref name=hutton> {{Cite journal | last = Hutton | first = A.C. | title = Petrographic classification of oil shales | journal = International Journal of Coal Geology | publisher = Elsevier | location = Amsterdam | volume = 8 | issue = 3 | pages = 203–231 | year = 1987 | doi = 10.1016/0166-5162(87)90032-2 | bibcode = 1987IJCG....8..203H | issn = 0166-5162}}</ref> A similar mineral, cannel coal, is classified as being a terrestrial form of oil shale, not a lacustrine type.<ref name="hutton" />

Torbanite is named after Torbane Hill near Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland, a major location of occurrence.<ref name=dyni>{{cite journal |last1=Dyni |first1=J R |title=Geology and Resources of Some World Oil-Shale Deposits |journal=Oil Shale |date=2003 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=193 |doi=10.3176/oil.2003.3.02 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Torbanite found in Bathgate may have formations of bathvillite found within it.<ref>{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Bathvillite|volume=3|page=521}}</ref> Historically, two other names have been used for torbanite. Boghead coal is named after Boghead estate, also near Bathgate in Scotland. In Australia, the historical name for torbanite was kerosene shale.<ref name=":0">{{Cite report |url=http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp132I |title=Origin of the boghead coals |last=Thiessen |first=Reinhardt |date=1925 |issue=132–I |pages=121–137}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1909-11-13 |title=SCIENTIFIC. |pages=54 |work=Australasian |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139215492 |access-date=2023-07-21}}</ref>

Other major deposits of torbanite are found in Pennsylvania and Illinois, US, in Mpumalanga Province in South Africa, in the Sydney Basin of New South Wales, Australia,<ref name="aus">{{cite web|url=http://web.aanet.com.au/bayling/airly.html|title=Shale mining relics at Airly, Genowlan Creek and Torbane, NSW|author=Brian Ayling|accessdate=2010-01-30}}</ref> the largest deposit of which is located at Glen Davis, and in Nova Scotia, Canada.<ref name="tehfuyen">{{cite book |last1=Yen |first1=T.F. |last2=Chilingar |first2=George V. |title=Oil Shale |chapter=Introduction to Oil Shales |series=Developments in Petroleum Science |date=1976 |volume=5 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1016/S0376-7361(08)70041-4 |isbn=978-0-444-41408-3 }}</ref><ref name="dyni" />

Organic matter (telalginite) in torbanite is derived from lipid-rich microscopic plant remains similar in appearance to the fresh-water colonial green alga ''Botryococcus braunii''.<ref name=tehfuyen/><ref name=lee/><ref name=dyni/> This evidence and extracellular hydrocarbons produced by the alga have led scientists to examine the alga as a source of Permian torbanites<ref name=Aczel> {{Cite book |last1=Meuzelaar |first1=Henk L. C.| last2=Windig |first2=Willem |last3=Futrell |first3 =Jean H. |last4= Harper |first4 =Alice M. |last5= Larter | first5 =Steve R. | editor-last=Aczel | editor-first=Thomas | title=Mass spectrometric characterization of shale oils: a symposium | chapter=Pyrolysis mass spectrometry and multivariate analysis of several key world oil shale kerogens and some recent alginites | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X8ZJDf8Od4sC&q=10 | year = 1986 | publisher= ASTM International | location=Philadelphia | isbn=978-0-8031-0467-9 | pages=81–105 | accessdate = 2009-07-06}}</ref> and a possible producer of biofuels.<ref>{{Cite book | last=Lee | first=Robert E. | title=Phycology | year=1999 | edition = 3 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | location=Cambridge, [England] | url = https://archive.org/details/phycology00robe | url-access=registration | isbn=978-0-521-63883-8 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/phycology00robe/page/246 246]–247}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=1925-08-22 |title=The value of corrongite. |pages=73 |work=The Chronicle (Adelaide) |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article89631223 |access-date=2023-07-22}}</ref> Torbanite consists of subordinate amounts of vitrinite and inertinite; however, their occurrence varies depending on deposits.<ref name=dyni/>

Torbanite typically comprises 88% carbon and 11% hydrogen.<ref name=tehfuyen/> Paraffin oil can be distilled from some forms of torbanite, a process discovered and patented by James Young in 1851.<ref name="RSocChem">{{cite web | url=https://www.rsc.org/news/2012/april/paraffin-young-landmark-plaque-unveiled-by-great-great-grandson | title=Paraffin Young landmark plaque unveiled by great-great-grandson | publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry | accessdate=25 August 2025}}</ref>{{cn|date=August 2025}}

A rubber-like, elastic, highly-resilient bituminous substance, known as coorongite—classified as an organic-rich sediment and named after the Coorong, a lagoon in South Australia where it was found—was in 1925 identified as a "peat stage" in the formation of torbanite, which suggested the lacustrine and algal origin of torbanite.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Coroongite |url=https://www.mindat.org/min-49308.html |website=Mindat.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Organic-rich sediment |url=https://www.mindat.org/min-49301.html |website=Mindat.org}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> However, a 1989 study looked at coorongite collected on the shores of the Darwin River Reservoir in the Northern Territory, where ''Botryococcus braunii B'' race grows profusely. The authors concluded that torbanite could not be derived from coorongite, because although "torbanite and some coorongites derive from a common algal source, they clearly show distinct structures, as a result of markedly different conditions of early diagenesis of the ''Botryococcus'' biomass". Torbanite is characterised by well-separated fossil colonies, while coorongite is not.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dubreuil |first1=C. |last2=Derenne |first2=S. |last3=Largeau |first3=C. |last4=Berkaloff |first4=C. |last5=Rousseau |first5=B. |title=Mechanism of formation and chemical structure of Coorongite—I. Role of the resistant biopolymer and of the hydrocarbons of Botryococcus braunii. Ultrastructure of Coorongite and its relationship with Torbanite |journal=Organic Geochemistry |date=January 1989 |volume=14 |issue=5 |pages=543–553 |doi=10.1016/0146-6380(89)90034-X |bibcode=1989OrGeo..14..543D }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Coal Category:Oil shale geology