Formation
Peat forms when plant material, usually in wet areas, is inhibited from decaying fully by acidic and anaerobic conditions. It is composed mainly of wetland vegetation: principally bog plants including mosses, sedges and shrubs. As it accumulates, the peat can hold water, thereby slowly creating wetter conditions, and allowing the area of wetland to expand. Peatland features can include ponds, ridges, and raised bogs. For more information on this process, refer to wetland in general and bog in particular.
Most modern peat bogs formed in high latitudes after the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age some 12,000 years ago. Peat usually accumulates slowly, at the rate of about a millimetre per year.
The peat in the world's peatlands has been forming for 360 million years and contains 550 Gt of carbon.
Under the appropriate circumstances, peat could be considered an early component in the formation of coal.
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