Welcome to another bonus episode of Calm History, an extra treat for my Soak Plus members.

The History of Coal

Our story begins about 300 million years ago.

The recipe for the formation of coal begins with the death of a dense forest.

This doesn't apply to any dense forest.

Most dead trees just biodegrade on the forest floor.

This normal degradation involves chewy

chewy bugs, special microbes,

and exposure to oxygen in the air.

The process of normal decay basically breaks down the chains of carbon in the tree

and then returns those individual carbon atoms to the environment.

But the recipe for coal is different.

To create coal, the tree dies in a wetland

and then gets covered by mud or acidic water.

This protects the tree from the normal bugs,

microbes, and exposure to oxygen.

That means the carbon chains don't get broken down.

Instead, they start to condense together into a thick, black goop.

And that thick black goop is called peat, which, yeah, is found in peat bogs.

If you've ever tramped through some wet marshy bogs and your boots sunk into black goop, then yeah, you had a case of peat feet. Or perhaps you've used peat in your gardening. But it's not because peat is rich in nutrients. Pete has not undergone biodegradation,

so those nutrients are still locked up inside

those long chains of carbon and other molecules.

...