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This work focuses on the relationship between the coal geology and coal quality of the Miocene Mugla basin, Southwestern Anatolia, Turkey. To this end, detailed petrographical, mineralogical and geochemical studies were performed on composite profile samples from the nine coal fields in the Mugla basin (Alatepe, Bagyaka, Bayir, Cakiralan, Ekizkoy, Eskihisar, Husamlar, Sekkoy and Tinaz coal fields). The Mugla lignite is a high ash (from 16 to 56%) and sulphur (from 2.1 to 5.7%) Lignite which is petrographically characterised by:a high huminite content, mainly gelinite macerals. The mineral matter of the studied lignite samples is made up mainly of clay minerals and quartz, with the exception of the Sekkoy and Ekizkoy lignites, in which calcite is the dominant mineral phase with minor amounts of quartz, clay minerals, pyrite and gypsum and traces of aragonite. Syngenetic opal is also frequently identified in these samples. The differentiation of these two types of Lignite with specific mineralogical patterns is attributed to the contemporaneous development of peatlands with a high detrital input, dominated by the quartz and clay mineral setting, and peatlands with low detrital supply and a dominant carbonate-rich lacustrine environment. The higher water table of the latter allowed the precipitation of micritic carbonates and the development of lakes with abundant mollusc fauna. This differentiation is also evidenced by the geochemical data. Thus, the Sekkoy, Ekizkoy, Husamlar, Bayir and Alatepe lignites are characterised by relatively low Al and Fe contents (< 1.4%) and high sulphur contents (4.2 to 5.7%). In addition Sekkoy and Ekizkoy show relatively high contents of Ca (6.3-7.1% compared to 1.6-3.8% in the other Lignites). All the lignite samples studied are characterised by relatively high Mo and U contents when compared with the worldwide averages of trace elements in coal. Relatively high alkaline syngenetic conditions of the pet-forming environment of the Mugla coal are deduced from the following mineralogical, petrographical and geochemical evidence: (a) the precipitation of syngenetic opal (dissolution of quartz and re-precipitation as opal) and calcite; (b) minor and very early syngenetic sulphide precipitation (only framboidal and euhedral pyrite); (c) high bacterial activity, typical of high pH conditions, inferred from low preservation of tissue structures; (d) preservation of aragonite gastropod shells; and (e) the anomalous enrichment of U, Mo and W. A key result of the study of Mugla limnic coals (at least of the Sekkoy and Ekizkoy coal fields) is that a major influence was exerted on the early diagenetic evolution of the coal by the hydrochemistry of the lacustrine waters. This hydrochemistry was largely linked to the lithology of the surrounding source rock areas although the final evolutionary trend of the solute composition in the lake waters, characterized by very high carbonate and sulphate contents, was largely enhanced by the endorheic river drainage system and the arid-semiarid paleoclimatic situation under which organic matter accumulation took place. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.