CHARACTERISATION OF ORGANIC MATTER FORMED IN HYPERSALINE CARBONATE/EVAPORITE ENVIRONMENTS: HYDROCARBON POTENTIAL AND BIOMARKERS OBTAINED THROUGH ARTIFICIAL MATURATION STUDIES |
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| Authors: | B. C. Schreiber,R. P. Philp,S. Benali,M. L. Helman,J. A. de la,Peñ a ,R. Marfil,P. Landais,A. D. Cohen,C.G.St.C. Kendall |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Geology, Appalachian State University, 195 Rankin Science Building, Boone NC, 28608, USA;School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, 100 East Boyd St., Norman OK, 73019-0628, USA;. School of Earth and Environmental Science, Queens College (C. U.N. Y.), 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing N.Y., 11367, USA.;United States Army Corps of Engineers, 26 Federal Plaza, New York N.Y. 10278-0090, USA;Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Departamento de Petrologia y Geoquimica, 28040 Madrid, Spain;UMR G2R, UniversitéHenri Poincaré, BP 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre Cédex, France;. Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia SC, 29208, USA |
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| Abstract: | Sediments deposited under hypersaline conditions, particularly those laid down in the transition zone between marine carbonates and evaporites, are increasingly recognised as a potential source for oil. Recent environments that lie in waters with elevated salinities are sites of very high biological productivity that can be used as models for evaporite-related sedimentation in the geological record. Of particular importance is the range of elevated salinities well above the range for normal marine biota, in which organic-rich cyanobacterial carbonates form and accumulate in large quantities. Such organic matter collected from a number of modern evaporative settings has been examined in terms of oil potential and for biomarkers characteristic of hypersaline environments. The regions studied include marine-fed salinas (Santa Pola, Spain); marine-fed sabkhas (Abu Dhabi, UAE); and continental ponds and lakes (La Mancha region, Spain). High values of H/C ratio and HI demonstrate the oil source potential of this organic matter. The hydrocarbons generated during artificial maturation of these immature sediments resemble those naturally occurring in ancient petroleum-generating evaporitic systems. Variations in the total |
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