Testing the preservation of biomarkers during experimental maturation of an immature kerogen

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Mißbach ◽  
J.-P. Duda ◽  
N.K. Lünsdorf ◽  
B.C. Schmidt ◽  
V. Thiel
Keyword(s):  
Vitrinite Reflectance ◽  
Lipid Biomarkers ◽  
Sampling Point ◽  
Thermal Maturity ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Degradation Behaviour ◽  
Green River ◽  
Hydrous Pyrolysis ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Reflectance Data

AbstractLipid biomarkers have been extensively applied for tracing organisms and evolutionary processes through Earth's history. They have become especially important for the reconstruction of early life on Earth and, potentially, for the detection of life in the extraterrestrial realm. However, it is not always clear how exactly biomarkers reflect a paleoecosystem as their preservation may be influenced by increasing temperatures (T) and pressures (P) during burial. While a number of biomarker indices reflecting thermal maturity have been established, it is often less well constrained to which extent biomarker ratios used for paleoreconstruction are compromised by T and P processes. In this study we conducted hydrous pyrolysis of Green River Shale (GRS) kerogen in gold capsules for 2–2400 h at 300°C to assess the maturation behaviour of several compounds used as life tracers and for the reconstruction of paleoenvironments (n-alkanes, pristane, phytane, gammacerane, steranes, hopanes and cheilanthanes). Lignite samples were maturated in parallel with the GRS kerogen to obtain exact vitrinite reflectance data at every sampling point. Our experiment confirms the applicability of biomarker-based indices and ratios as maturity indicators (e.g. total cheilanthanes/hopanes ratio; sterane and hopane isomerization indices). However, several biomarker ratios that are commonly used for paleoreconstructions (e.g. pristane/phytane, pristane/n-C17, phytane/n-C18 and total steranes/hopanes) were considerably affected by differences in the thermal degradation behaviour of the respective compounds. Short-term experiments (48 h) performed at 400°C also revealed that biomarkers >C15 (especially steranes and hopanes) and ‘biological’ chain length preferences for n-alkanes are vanished at a vitrinite reflectance between 1.38 and 1.83% RO. Our data highlight that ‘thermal taphonomy’ effects have to be carefully considered in the interpretation of biomarkers in ancient rocks and, potentially, extraterrestrial materials.

Thermal imprints along conjugated continental margins in response to the opening of the northern North Atlantic - case studies from eastern North Greenland and western Svalbard

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Meier ◽  
Paul O'Sullivan ◽  
Malte Jochmann ◽  
Patrick Monien ◽  
Karsten Piepjohn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flow ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Thermal History ◽  
Vitrinite Reflectance ◽  
Continental Margins ◽  
Thermal Maturity ◽  
Quartz Veins ◽  
The North ◽  
Reflectance Data ◽  
North Greenland

<p>Prior to break up of Greenland and Svalbard, the Wandel sea basin with Carboniferous to Cenozoic deposits formed in eastern North Greenland. These deposits were affected by the last major period of Arctic tectonism, the Eocene Eurekan deformation. Vitrinite reflectance data from late Cretaceous rocks long the east coast of North Greenland indicate unusual high thermal maturity in association with a swarm of quartz veins, which exceeds the thermal maturity associated with the Eurekan deformation further inland. This pattern is also observed in Cenozoic sediments further to the north as well as along the conjugated North Atlantic margin, in western Svalbard. However, cause and origin of the elevated heat flow indicated by thermal maturity values are not known so far and the timing is not well constrained. We test the hypothesis whether this pattern was established coevally along both margins of the North Atlantic and marks a post-Eurekan thermal event. Vitrinite reflectance data indicate temperatures high enough to reset low temperature chronometers, therefore we used apatite fission track (AFT) and (U-Th-Sm)/He (AHe) thermochronology to determine the age of the high thermal maturation and associated quartz veins formation.</p><p>Our data reveals a more complex thermal history than hypothesized:<br>For the eastern North Greenland margin thermal history modelling of the combined AFT and AHe ages indicates a pre-Eurekan phase of elevated heat flow between 72 Ma and 66 Ma causing the high vitrinite reflectance and the formation of the quartz veins in the late Cretaceous rocks. Additional petrographic and electron microprobe analysis reveals the growth of feldspar, hematite, amphibole, and tourmaline within the quartz veins. According to most paleogeographic reconstructions, northern Greenland was located to the south of Svalbard close to a volcanic province near Bear Island. Heating may thus be associated with incipient igneous activity of that area, related to initial North Atlantic opening. A second phase of elevated heat flow between 58 Ma and 52 Ma is indicated by thermal history modelling of the AFT and AHe ages from the Cenozoic rocks further north. This frames the timing of the initiation of the dextral displacement between Greenland and Svalbard and might be associated with heat transfer along the transform fault from the active spreading centres in the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean.<br>Contrasting to the results of North Greenland, thermal history modelling of AFT and AHe ages from the Cenozoic rocks of western Svalbard reveals heating throughout the Eocene and onset of cooling only during the early Oligocene for the Svalbard margin. Thus, even though we cannot exclude a similar thermal history during the Paleocene to early Eocene, the eastern North Greenland and western Svalbard margins are characterized by a differential thermal evolution during the ~middle Eocene to Oligocene.</p><p>In conclusion, our data show that the thermal history of the conjugated continental margins along the northern North Atlantic is characterized by episodic heat flow variations predominantly controlled by oceanic plate tectonic processes.</p>

THE SUPPRESSION OF VITRINITE REFLECTANCE IN SOME NORTH WEST SHELF WELLS: BARROW-1, JUPITER-1 AND FLAMINGO-1

1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 300 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.W.T. Wilkins ◽  
J.R. Wilmshurst ◽  
G. Hladky ◽  
M.V. Ellacott ◽  
C.P. Buckingham
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Vitrinite Reflectance ◽  
Accurate Determination ◽  
Petroleum Exploration ◽  
Thermal Maturity ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Reflectance Data

The sediments of the North West Shelf pose several problems for the accurate determination of thermal maturity by vitrinite reflectance. There are some serious discrepancies between the results of different workers; in some wells there is a surprisingly small increase of reflectance with depth, and it is sometimes difficult to honour these data in thermal maturity modelling. There appear to be two major sources of error in the reflectance data. These are firstly, the effect known as 'suppression' of vitrinite reflectance, and secondly, the difficulty of identifying the vitrinite population in dispersed organic matter.These problems may be addressed by the fluorescence alteration technique which is closely related to vitrinite reflectance but has two special advantages. Firstly, it depends on an analysis of the fluorescence alteration response of a small representative population of organic matter in which the individual macerals need not be identified. Secondly, anomalous vitrinites with suppressed vitrinite reflectance are readily characterized, and the corrected equivalent reflectances determined.The technique has been tested on three North West Shelf petroleum exploration wells, Barrow-1, Jupiter-1 and Flamingo-1. Major discrepancies between measured and equivalent vitrinite reflectance appear to originate in part from the difficulty of identifying the vitrinite population in dispersed organic matter from marine sediments. There is also evidence of suppression of vitrinite reflectance in most samples from Barrow-1, in the Flamingo Group and Plover Formation of Flamingo-1, and in the upper part of the Mungaroo Formation of Jupiter-1.A model is proposed to facilitate the assessment of measured vitrinite reflectance data from Carnarvon or Bonaparte Basin wells. Suppression effects are likely to have influenced measured vitrinite reflectance results from wells for which the strongest data are obtained from the Lower Cretaceous fluvio-deltaic Barrow Group sediments or their equivalents.

THERMAL MODELLING IN THE EASTERN OTWAY BASIN

1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 205 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.T. Cooper ◽  
K.C. Hill ◽  
M. Wlasenko
Keyword(s):  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fission Track ◽  
Rapid Heating ◽  
Vitrinite Reflectance ◽  
Seismic Profile ◽  
Thermal Maturity ◽  
Apatite Fission Track ◽  
Fission Track Analysis ◽  
Reflectance Data ◽  
Track Analysis

Vitrinite reflectance data across the Otway Ranges yield a thermal maturity map that indicates the presence of a broad NE-SW trending anticline with strong vergence to the southeast. Surface Rv max values for the central part of the ranges are >1.5 whilst those on both limbs decrease to Apatite fission track analysis of seven Eumeralla (Lower Cretaceous) samples from the coast around Wye River yields an AFTA age of 90±5 Ma, consistent with similar cooling ages measured around most of the SE Australia margin. Modelling of the data is consistent with a stratigraphic age of -100 Ma, rapid heating to −80°C for −5 Ma followed by cooling from 95–80 Ma and further cooling in the Miocene.Geologically the very large asymmetric anticline can be explained by inversion of a thick rift sequence along a major, listric northwest-dipping fault, perhaps soling at mid-crustal levels. This is consistent with structures observed offshore in the Torquay Embayment and is being tested by the AGSO deep seismic profile BMR 920T1. Observed gravity highs in the Otway Ranges may be associated with inverted high density sediments. Fission track analysis indicates that the major cooling was at −90 Ma, which is therefore likely to be the time of inversion. However, this implies compression during continental breakup, the mechanisms of which are not fully understood.

Evidence from the Changing Carbon Isotopic of Kerogen, Oil, and Gas during Hydrous Pyrolysis from Pinghu Formation, the Xihu Sag, East China Sea Basin

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8317
Author(s):  
Qiang Cao ◽  
Jiaren Ye ◽  
Yongchao Lu ◽  
Yang Tian ◽  
Jinshui Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Isotopes ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Thermal Evolution ◽  
Vitrinite Reflectance ◽  
Heating Time ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Evolution Process ◽  
Carbon Isotopic ◽  
Hydrous Pyrolysis ◽  
Increasing Temperature

Semi-open hydrous pyrolysis experiments on coal-measure source rocks in the Xihu Sag were conducted to investigate the carbon isotope evolution of kerogen, bitumen, generated expelled oil, and gases with increasing thermal maturity. Seven corresponding experiments were conducted at 335 °C, 360 °C, 400 °C, 455 °C, 480 °C, 525 °C, and 575 °C, while other experimental factors, such as the heating time and rate, lithostatic and hydrodynamic pressures, and columnar original samples were kept the same. The results show that the simulated temperatures were positive for the measured vitrinite reflectance (Ro), with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9861. With increasing temperatures, lower maturity, maturity, higher maturity, and post-maturity stages occurred at simulated temperatures (Ts) of 335–360 °C, 360–400 °C, 400–480 °C, and 480–575 °C, respectively. The increasing gas hydrocarbons with increasing temperature reflected the higher gas potential. Moreover, the carbon isotopes of kerogen, bitumen, expelled oil, and gases were associated with increased temperatures; among gases, methane was the most sensitive to maturity. Ignoring the intermediate reaction process, the thermal evolution process can be summarized as kerogen0(original) + bitumen0(original)→kerogenr (residual kerogen) + expelled oil (generated) + bitumenn+r (generated + residual) + C2+(generated + residual) + CH4(generated). Among these, bitumen, expelled oil, and C2-5 acted as reactants and products, whereas kerogen and methane were the reactants and products, respectively. Furthermore, the order of the carbon isotopes during the thermal evolution process was identified as: δ13C1 < 13C2-5 < δ13Cexpelled oil < δ13Cbitumen < δ13Ckerogen. Thus, the reaction and production mechanisms of carbon isotopes can be obtained based on their changing degree and yields in kerogen, bitumen, expelled oil, and gases. Furthermore, combining the analysis of the geochemical characteristics of the Pinghu Formation coal–oil-type gas in actual strata with these pyrolysis experiments, it was identified that this area also had substantial development potential. Therefore, this study provides theoretical support and guidance for the formation mechanism and exploration of oil and gas based on changing carbon isotopes.

Hydrocarbon Generative Properties and Maturity of Cretaceous and Eocene Sediments in the Middle Kura Depression, Azerbaijan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahin Khosrov Akhundov ◽  
Mushfig Farhad Tagiyev ◽  
Arastun Ismail Khuduzade ◽  
Natig Namig Aliyev
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Brown Coal ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Vitrinite Reflectance ◽  
Sedimentary Cover ◽  
Hard Coal ◽  
Marine Origin ◽  
Formation Conditions ◽  
Lesser Caucasus ◽  
Reflectance Data

Abstract Meso-Cenozoic sedimentary cover in the Middle Kura depression located between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus mountain structures contains numerous oil accumulations. According to studies in the Cretaceous and Paleogene strata, sedimentary organic matter is of mixed clastic-marine origin. Moderate amounts of organic matter have been recorded in the Eocene sediments (on average 0.70%), in the Upper and Lower Cretaceous average values made up 0.39% и 0.42%, respectively. Analysis of bitumoid composition suggests that in a number of areas bitumoids have experienced a widespread movement across the sedimentary strata. The results of measurements on isolated samples indicate that the Cretaceous strata have only advanced to the initial hard-coal stage of organic transformation (0.48-0.55%Ro). On vitrinite reflectance data the Eocene deposits in studied areas of the Middle Kura depression have reached initial (brown-coal) stage of catagenetic transformation (±0.48Ro%; est. paleotemperature of 85°C). Nonetheless, analysis of formation conditions of commercial HC accumulations found earlier in the Eocene strata allows considering them the most prospective in the Middle Kura depression.

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