mid ocean ridge and island arc affinities in ophiolites from iran palaeographic implications complementary reference abstract fifty six samples of ophiolitic rocks from various late cretaceous eocene suture zones in iran have been analyzed for major and trace elements in order to assess their petrogenetic affinity and to determine their original tectonic setting in both southern baluchestan i e between the makran range and the lut block the fanuj maskutan sequence and northeastern baluchestan i e in the east iranian ranges the tchehel kureh sequence the ophiolitic complexes are well developed the rocks display affinities with mid ocean ridge tholeiites the basaltic rocks are comparable to respectively transitional fanuj maskutan and normal tchehel kureh morb in contrast the sequence along the zagros the sahneh sequence appears to have formed in an island arc setting in iranshar i e in southeastern baluchestan ophiolites are dismembered into a melange which includes cumulate intrusives similar to those from fanuj maskutan and lavas with island arc tholeiitic affinity a similar island arc origin may be inferred for the sabzevar ophiolitic sequence north of the lut block studied by other authors the chemical data thus help to elucidate the development of the jigsaw puzzle of microplates of gondwanian origin that during the mesozoic were intermediate in position between afro arabia india and eurasia and that now constitute the middle east ophiolite obduction in iran occurred during arc basin continent or ocean continent collisions in the late cretaceous early paleogene largely predating the final suturing between arabia and india with eurasia to which the intermediate microplates were already attached which did not take place before the neogene

the structure and fault activity of the makran accretionary prism the makran subduction zone has the highest incoming sediment thickness up to 7 5 km of any subduction zone these sediments have formed a wide accretionary prism 400 km seismicity in the makran is generally low however the margin experienced an mw 8 1 earthquake in 1945 which generated a significant regional tsunami seismic reflection data and swath bathymetry data from offshore pakistan are used to analyze the structure and fault activity of the outer accretionary prism the outer prism has a simple structure of seaward verging imbricate thrust faults many continuous for over 100 km along strike fault activity is analyzed using basin stratigraphy and fault geometry revealing a frontal continuously active zone a central intermittently active zone and a landward inactive zone over 75 of the faults in the seaward 70 km of the prism show evidence for recent activity the decollement occurs within the lower sediment section but steps onto the top basement surface in regions of elevated basement topography fault spacing 6 km and taper 4 5 are comparable to other margins such as s hikurangi cascadia and nankai suggesting that high sediment input is not leading to an unusual prism structure the decollement is unreflective which is unexpected considering other prism characteristics predicting a weak surface and may suggest a potentially stronger decollement than previously predicted this study provides a significant advance in our understanding of the structure of an end member convergent margin and demonstrates that systematic analyses of accretionary prism structure can help to elucidate subduction zone dynamics with ultimate relevance to seismogenic potential

structure of the makran subduction zone from wide angle and reflection seismic data abstract makran is one of the largest accretionary wedges on the globe formed by the convergence between the eurasian and the arabian plates it is characterised by an extremely high sediment input of 7 km and a shallow subduction angle we present seismic velocity models from four wide angle seismic lines that image the wedge sediments and the subducted oceanic crust three strike lines show complex but rather one dimensional structures where the observed seismic phases have been studied with the reflectivity method a 160 km long dip line was surveyed coincident with a mcs line collected by cambridge university in 1986 prestack depth migration of this data with the new wide angle velocities shows improved images compared to earlier results interpretation of the wide angle and the mcs data indicates that a decollement is developed along a bright reflector within the turbiditic sequence more than 3 km of sediment bypasses the first accretionary ridges underthrusting and is transported to greater depth this might help to explain the sparse earthquake activity associated with subduction here in the strike lines low velocity layers occur landward of the deformation front in zones where active thrusting or underplating takes place the oceanic crust is characterised by a strong velocity contrast between layer ii and layer iii

coal characteristics palynology and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of the yenikoy coal of late oligocene age in the thrace basin nw turkey abstract the yenikoy coal field is located in a narrow area between the black sea coast and the istranca standrja mountain in the thrace basin the aims of this study are to characterize coal petrographical mineralogical palynological geochemical and sedimentological properties of the yenikoy coal deposit and to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental conditions during peat accumulation a total of 9 coal samples collected from the coal seam section are almost entirely composed of xylite rich lithotype and are characterized by low ash yield 7 9 21 1 average 13 6 on dry basis and high total s contents 1 0 3 7 average 2 2 on dry basis the macroscopic features maceral composition and coal facies suggest that the peat was accumulated under mesotrophic anoxic conditions and the peat forming vegetation consisted mainly of arboreal species e g cupressaceae ulmus carya zelkova alnus pterocarya and quercus the low hi values of the analysed samples are presumably related to presence of xylite rich lithotype rather than the dominance of herbaceous plant and or low preservation of organic matter in the palaeomire even though relatively b enrichments high total s contents and weak anomalies of some rey e g y ce and gd in the analysed samples could refer possible sea water influence into palaeomire in the study area during late oligocene the sedimentological and palynological freshwater algaes pediastrum spirogyra and mougeotia data that indicate the palaeomire was located within a delta plain environment where small freshwater lakes and or ponds developed the statistical analysis and sem edx data show the vast majority of elements in the analysed coal samples have inorganic affinity the major elements al k and enriched elements like b v cr hg and u seem to be affiliated with aluminosilicate minerals whereas fe ni and as have probably sulphide affinity the detrital presences of apatite crystals as detected by sem edx analysis indicate that rey have mainly phosphate affinity in the analysed samples vertical distributions of the elements and ash yields suggest that the detrital input ratio was changeable and controlled some elemental enrichment during peat accumulation these variations could be related to development of and fluvial conditions in the study area which interrupted peat accumulation several times during late oligocene

biomarker distributions in australian oils predominantly derived from terrigenous source material oils found in many australian sedimentary basins contain a relatively high input of terrigenous organic source material a study of a large number of these oils has permitted a number of biomarker distributions to be determined that appear to be characteristic for oils derived from terrigenous source material these features include the presence of sesquiterpanes absence of tricyclic terpanes relatively high concentrations of a c24 tetracyclic terpane predominance of c29 steranes presence of two unidentified c27 and c30 terpanes and virtual absence of 18 h oleanane the latter observation is significant since it appears that 18 h oleanane appears only in oils of tertiary age derived from terrigenous source material an attempt has also been made to compare the results for the australian oils with published results for oils derived from terrigenous source material in other parts of the world the number of reports in the literature for these oils is fairly limited but it appears that some of the observations for the australian oils can be extended to them this study is an initial attempt to devise a classification scheme that can be used to determine the origin of an oil unambiguously from biomarker parameters in order for this approach to be successful a relatively large number of biomarker parameters need to be assigned as characteristic of a particular type of source material

geochemistry and zircon u pb geochronology of aligoodarz granitoid complex sanandaj sirjan zone iran the aligoodarz granitoid complex agc is located in the sanandaj sirjan zone ssz western iran and consists of quartz diorites granodiorites and subordinate granites whole rock major and trace element data mostly define linear trends on harker diagrams suggesting a cogenetic origin of the different rock types 87 sr 86 sr i and endt ratios are in the ranges 0 7074 0 7110 and 3 56 to 5 50 respectively the trace elements and sr nd isotopic composition suggest that the granitoids from the agc are similar to crustal derived i type granitoids of continental arcs the whole rock suite was produced by assimilation and fractional crystallization starting from a melt with intermediate composition likely possessing a mantle component in situ zircon u pb data on the granites with la icp ms yield a crystallization age of 165 ma inherited grains spanning in age from 180 ma up to 2027 ma were also found and confirm that assimilation of country rock has occurred chemical and chronological data on the agc were compared with those available for other granitoid complexes of the central ssz e g dehno boroujerd and alvand the comparison reveals that in spite of the different origins that have been proposed all these granitoid complexes are likely genetically related they share many chemical features and are derived from crustal melts with minor differences alvand granites have the most peculiar compositions most likely related to the presence of abundant pelitic component all these intrusions are coeval and reveal the presence of an extensive magmatic activity in the central sector of the ssz during middle jurassic

subduction kinematics and dynamic constraints the kinematics of subduction zones shows a variety of settings that can provide clues for dynamic understandings two reference frames are used here to describe the simple 2d kinematics of subduction zones in the first the upper plate is assumed fixed whereas in the second frame upper and lower plates move relative to the mantle relative to a fixed point in the upper plate u the transient subduction hinge h can converge diverge or be stationary similarly the lower plate l can converge diverge or be stationary the subduction rate vs is given by the velocity of the hinge h minus the velocity of the lower plate l vs vh vl the subduction rate 1 increases when h diverges and 2 decreases when h converges combining the different movements at least 14 kinematic settings can be distinguished along the subduction zones variable settings can coexist even along a single subduction zone as shown for the 5 different cases occurring along the apennines subduction zone apart from few exceptions the subduction hinge converges toward the upper plate more frequently along e or ne directed subduction zone whereas it mainly diverges from the upper plate along w directed subduction zones accompanying backarc extension before collision orogen growth occurs mostly at the expenses of the upper plate shortening along e ne directed subduction zones whereas the accretionary prism of w directed subduction zones increases at the expenses of the shallow layers of the lower plate the convergence shortening ratio is 1 along e or ne directed subduction zones whereas it is 1 along accretionary prisms of w directed subduction zones backarc spreading forms in two settings along the w directed subduction zones it is determined by the hinge divergence relative to the upper plate minus the volume of the accretionary prism or in case of scarce or no accretion minus the volume of the asthenospheric intrusion at the subduction hinge since the volume of the accretionary prism is proportional to the depth of the decollement plane the backarc rifting is inversely proportional to the depth of the decollement on the other hand along e or ne directed subduction zones few backarc basins form e g aegean andaman and can be explained by the velocity gradient within the hangingwall lithosphere separated into two plates when referring to the mantle the kinematics of subduction zones can be computed either in the deep or in the shallow hotspot reference frames the subduction hinge is mostly stationary being the slab anchored to the mantle along w directed subduction zones whereas it moves w or sw ward along e or ne directed subduction zones surprisingly along e or ne directed subduction zones the slab moves out of the mantle i e the slab slips relative to the mantle opposite to the subduction direction kinematically this subduction occurs because the upper plate overrides the lower plate pushing it down into the mantle as an example the hellenic slab moves out relative to the mantle i e sw ward opposite to its subduction direction both in the deep and shallow hotspot reference frames in the shallow hotspot reference frame upper and lower plates move westward relative to the mantle along all subduction zones this kinematic observation casts serious doubts on the slab negative buoyancy as the primary driving mechanism of subduction and plate motions w directed subduction zones rather provide about 2 3 times larger volumes of lithosphere re entering into the mantle and the slab is pushed down this opposite behavior is consistent with the down dip extension seismicity along e ne directed subduction zones and the frequent down dip compression along the w directed subduction zones subduction kinematics shows that plate velocity is not dictated by the rate of subduction along the w directed subduction zones the rate of subduction is rather controlled i by the hinge migration due to the slab interaction with the easterly trending horizontal mantle wind along the global tectonic mainstream ii by the far field plate velocities and iii by the value of negative buoyancy of the slab relative to the country mantle alternatively e ne nne directed subduction zones have rates of sinking chiefly determined i by the far field velocity of plates and ii by the value of negative buoyancy of the slab relative to the country mantle along this type of subduction the subduction hinge generally advances e ne ward toward the upper plate decreasing the subduction rate but it moves w sw ward relative to the mantle all this indicates that subduction zones have different origin as a function of their geographic polarity and the subduction process is more a passive feature rather than being the driving mechanism of plate motions a rotational component combined with mantle density and viscosity anisotropies seems more plausible for generating the global tuning in the asymmetry of subduction zones

petrographical palynological and geochemical analyses of the hub and harbour seams sydney coalfield nova scotia canada implications for facies development abstract benched channel samples and continuous block samples of the hub and harbour seams from the sydney basin nova scotia were studied to define the variations in petrography geochemistry and palynology of the seams and to interpret the depositional environments of the precursor mires petrographic compositions of the seams are very similar with high vitrinite content low inertinite moderate liptinite and negligible clastic mineral content pyrite content is moderate there is little variation in petrographic composition between benches in either seam there are marked variations in petrographic compositions at the lithotype scale petrographic facies parameters indicate deposition of the bulk of both seams under fairly uniform conditions in relatively wet mires unusually wet or dry periods were rare the palynological assemblages of both seams indicate a middle to late westphalian d age the common to abundant palynomorphs are derived from arborescent and herbaceous lycopsids tree ferns and other ferns and sphenopsids the palynological assemblages support the petrographic interpretation of relatively wet mires cordaites pollen florinites is rare suggesting that there was little contribution from plants growing in dry or upland areas the absence of the densospore miospore phase and the petrographic data indicate there were no periods in which domed mires occurred the distinctive dull bands occurring in the hub and harbour seams are characterised by low vitrinite contents high inertinite content high liptinite and common detrital minerals sporinite showing varying degrees of degradation is commonly highly concentrated in thin bands the geochemistry is marked by much higher hi values than normally reported for coals but other indices are typical for coals of this rank the palynological assemblages of the dull bands are dominated by tree fern spores and other ferns with only a minor contribution by sphenopsid spores the dull bands were deposited during periods of inundation of mires relatively low mineral content indicates that the distributary channels which flooded the mires were quite distant from the depositional sites of the samples

the petrology of greek brown coals abstract results are given in the petrography of greek coals collected from most of the major coal bearing basins in greece rank was determined by measuring reflectances on the maceral varieties eu ulminite a and eu ulminite b and on the maceral textinite reflectances obtained from these components indicate a coalification stage of brown coal for all samples within this group of samples there is however a fairly wide scatter of reflectance values indicating for some of them the transition zone from peat to brown coal and for others a coalification stage close to the transition into bituminous coals reflectances obtained from eu ulminite a and eu ulminite b were found to correlate well with chemical rank parameters such as volatile matter and calorific value composition was determined by maceral analysis the coals are in general characterized by low amounts of macerals of the inertinite group low to intermediate amounts of macerals of the liptinite group and high amounts of macerals of the huminite group within the latter group densinite attrinite eu ulminite and textinite make up the bulk of the samples typical macerals observed in the coals are illustrated by two black and white and three colour plates cluster analysis based on maceral distribution mineral matter and reflectance indicates that the samples studied can be divided into three major groups the first one is dominated by eu ulminite and densinite with relatively high reflectances the second is dominated by attrinite textinite and texto ulminite with somewhat lower reflectances the third is represented by a single sample in which textinite and resinite are the most abundant macerals this sample also has the lowest reflectance

mud volcanoes at the front of the makran accretionary complex pakistan abstract conical mounds 1 1 5 km in diameter and up to 65 m high were mapped at the foot of the active makran continental margin the mounds developed seaward of the accretionary front in a relatively planar zone where the beginning of build up of tectonic pressure initiates deformation based on shallow high resolution 4 khz sediment echosounding the sedimentary sequence in this area is generally well stratified as indicated by closely spaced horizontal reflections however in the vicinity of the mounds the sediment is characterised by many acoustically transparent zones which are 100 300 m in diameter and cut near vertically through the horizontal reflectors two sediment cores from the top of the largest cone and a neighbouring acoustically transparent zone reveal small scale post depositional deformation in a stratified sequence and methane concentrations up to 40 000 ng g this deformation and disruption of potential reflectors provides a clue to explain the acoustic transparency we interpret it as caused by the rise of charged fluids and mud leading initially to the slight disturbance of the generally good acoustic reflectors and eventually to the formation of conical mud mounds mud volcanoes mcs data showing a buried mound in an analogous structural position support the idea of tectonically induced mud fluid expulsion seaward of the accretionary front

effects of mass waste events on thrust wedges analogue experiments and application to the makran accretionary wedge 1 olistostromes cover large portions of active thrust wedges like makran gulf of cadiz and offshore borneo olistostrome emplacement by submarine mass flow represents an instantaneous and massive mass redistribution that may influence thrust wedge mechanics different scenarios are experimentally tested they show that the postolistostrome wedge development depends on the thickness and extent of the added load these results are discussed after the example of the iranian makran wedge situated between the arabian and eurasian plates mass redistribution caused by a late miocene mass flow may explain a change in deformation style from intense folding and thrusting to gentle folding and eventually a jump of thrust imbrication toward the frontal offshore part of this active accretionary wedge

mineralogy petrography and organic geochemistry of miocene coal seams in the kinik coalfield soma basin western turkey insights into depositional environment and palaeovegetation abstract the kinik coalfield is located in the south westernmost part of the soma basin in western turkey and hosts all three miocene coal seams from bottom to top km2 km3 and kp1 this study presents the coal petrographical mineralogical and organic geochemical features of samples collected from two deep cores samples from seam km2 generally display low ash yields and high toc content whereas the km3 and kp1 seams are characterized by relatively high ash yields and low toc values furthermore total s content of the kp1 is very high up to 7 0 on dry basis the maceral composition the coal facies diagrams and the distributions of n alkanes and diterpenoids indicate changes of depositional conditions and vegetation in the palaeomires of the km2 seam during early miocene the precursor peat of km2 seam started accumulating under limnotelmatic conditions followed by pure telmatic ones consequently initial mixed vegetation was replaced by a conifer dominant assemblage in the palaeomires in the upper parts of the km2 seam the coal facies indices and high concentrations of n alkanes along with the relatively low di di tri terpenoid ratios are indicators of the higher contribution of herbaceous species and minor abundance of conifers in the palaeomires of km3 and kp1 seams nevertheless the mineralogical composition of the km3 and kp1 seams indicate increased clastic input and alkalinity in the palaeomires that could reduce preservation of organic matter thus high ash yields and low toc were obtained from these seams in addition sulphate rich water supply along with synchronous pyroclastic air borne input into the palaeomires caused elevated total s content of the kp1 seam

large scale sediment underplating in the makran accretionary prism southwest pakistan field relations in the emergent part of the makran accretionary prism show that a mid miocene to early pliocene slope and shelf sedimentary sequence was deposited directly on abyssal plain turbidites without any detectable stratigraphic or structural discordance sedimentological evidence for rapid shoaling however indicates that the underlying sediment column was tectonically thickened by a factor of between two and three during this period this can be explained by large scale underthrusting and underplating of sediment a mode of accretion that is also favored by mass balance considerations the visible deformation in the coastal makran occurred when the region was 70 100 km north of the contemporary prism front

source rock potential of lignite and interbedded coaly shale of the ogwashi asaba formation anambra basin as determined by sequential hydrous pyrolysis abstract outcrops in the anambra basin in southern nigeria contain paleogene imo shale marine the neogene paralic ogwashi asaba and the continental benin formations representing equivalents of the subsurface successions in the niger delta basin thirty three samples of lignite and the interbedded coaly shale of the ogwashi asaba formation were investigated petrologically before rock eval screening two selected samples of lignite and coaly shale were subjected to sequential hydrous pyrolysis hp at 330 c for 72 h and at 355 c for 72 h to characterize their oil and gas potential the lignite sample has a rock eval hydrogen index hi of 481 mg g toc and a mean vitrinite reflectance of 0 36 rom the total amount of expelled oil generated in the sequential hp experiments is 259 mg g of original total organic carbon tocorig this expelled waxy oil has abundant high molecular weight n alkanes and an extremely high pristane phytane ratio of 6 5 typical of crude oils generated from coals as observed in some onshore and shallow offshore accumulations of the niger delta the overlying coaly shale has a lower hi of only 191 mg g toc the total amount of expelled oil generated in the sequential hp experiments is only 15 mg g tocorig this oil is not waxy and has a pristane phytane of 2 6 which is more typical of a marine source rock these results are contrary to the idea that coaly shale associated with coal is the main source of oil the greater yields of expelled oil from the coal relative to the coaly shale are attributed to the higher liptinite content in the former and the possibility that the organic matter in the latter was oxidized prior to deposition 13c of the methane generated at 355 c for 72 h is 39 5 for the lignite and 35 0 for the coaly shale this suggests different methane precursors in these two lithologies the data set reveals remarkable differences in the characteristics of the two types of source rocks in the ogwashi asaba formation and their potential to contribute a mixture of hydrocarbons derived from intervals that are stratigraphically only meters apart these results suggest that coal and coaly shale within the thermally mature stratigraphic levels of the agbada formation in the sub surface are potential source rocks for liquids and gaseous hydrocarbons in the niger delta

tectonic framework of the indus and shyok suture zones in eastern ladakh northwest himalaya abstract three different phases of plutonic volcanic activity viz 1 1 cretaceous volcanics of the dras and luzarmu formations 2 2 early tertiary granitoids of the ladakh plutonic complex 3 3 oligocene acid volcanics and dykes of the khardung formation have been recognised in the ladakh magmatic arc the dras formation of the indus suture zone and the luzarmu formation of the shyok suture zone were one stratigraphic unit into which granitoids of the ladakh plutonic complex intruded the rocks of the shyok suture zone are interpreted to represent the tectonised remainder of a marginal back arc basin the closure of the marginal basin occurred at the eocene oligocene time boundary and crustal shortening was responsible for generation of neogene 2 mica granites of the karakoram plutonic complex and regional metamorphism of the pangong tso group

the petrology organic geochemistry and palynology of tertiary age eureka sound group coals arctic canada abstract tertiary age lignites from arctic canada were analysed by petrographical palynological and organic geochemical methods results from petrographic analyses indicate the predominance of wood derived macerals humotelinite group in seams from the strathcona and stenkul fiord areas whereas in the bache peninsula area many seams are characterized by the predominance of detrital macerals humodetrinite and have also higher inertinite contents palynological assemblages are dominated by taxodiaceae pollen whereas pinaceae pollen and pteridophyte spores are less common angiosperm derived pollen contents are quite variable organic geochemical results indicate that norisopimarane and pimarane are the most abundant diterpenoids cadalene was present in the aromatic fractions of all samples with other components such as simonellite and retene in variable abundance rock eval data obtained from stenkul fiord area samples indicate low petroleum generation potential for this predominantly woody material the depositional environment at strathcona and stenkul fiords was that of a forested swamp which formed in a lagoonal alluvial plain setting palynomorph assemblages petrographic indices and the abundance of diterpenoids suggest that the mire flora was dominated by gymnosperms although locally angiosperms may also have been abundant as indicated by the occurrence of tetra and pentacyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at bache peninsula the mire was less forested as indicated by palynological assemblages typical for a marsh environment and petrographic characteristics such as low tissue preservation and the abundance of detrial macerals

prediction of thrusting sequences in accretionary wedges 1 the main objective is to determine the three stages of the life of a thrust in an accretionary wedge which are the onset of thrusting along its ramp the development with the construction of the relief and the arrest because of the onset of another thrusting event a simple kinematics is proposed for the geometry of the developing thrust fold based on rigid regions separated by velocity discontinuities along which work is dissipated according to the coulomb criterion the evolution of the thrust fold satisfies mechanical equilibrium and is optimized at every time of the three stages to provide the least upper bound in tectonic force according to the maximum strength theorem the development of the thrust or its arrest because of the initiation of another thrust is decided by selecting the event which leads to the least upper bound in tectonic force the approach is first validated by proving that the critical slope angle c for the classical triangular wedge is properly captured it is shown that a perturbation in the form of an extra relief in this perfectly triangular geometry leads to the onset of thrusting with the ramp or the back thrust outcropping either at the back or to the front of the perturbation respectively for a range of slope dip close to the critical angle c the study of normal thrust sequences from the rear to the front in the wedge toe reveals that weakening of the ramp accounted for by changing its friction angle from an initial to a smaller final value is necessary for each thrust to have a finite life span this life span is longer with a larger relief buildup for more pronounced weakening decreasing the decollement friction angle results in an increase in the number of thrusts in the sequence each thrust creating milder relief the normal sequence is ended with the first out of sequence thrust which occurs earlier for smaller weakening over the ramp the proposed methodology is partly used to construct an inverse method proposed to assess the likeliness for the transfer of activity from the active to the incipient thrust in a section of nankai s accretionary wedge the inverse method provides the initial friction angle over the incipient ramp and the final friction angle over the fully active ramp from the geometry of the corresponding thrusts and the topography it is shown that the friction angle over the incipient ramp is most likely to be larger then the one over the active ramp justifying a key hypothesis needed to predict discrete sequences of thrusting

geodynamic regimes of subduction under an active margin effects of rheological weakening by fluids and melts the dynamics of subduction under an active margin are analysed by using a 2d coupled petrological thermomechanical numerical model of an oceanic continental subduction system the model includes spontaneous slab bending dehydration of the subducted crust aqueous fluid transport partial melting of both crustal and mantle rocks as well as melt extraction processes resulting in magmatic arc crust growth based on our models the following five geodynamic regimes of subduction which may potentially form at active margins are identified i stable subduction with no backarc spreading centre and without plumes in the mantle wedge ii retreating subduction with a focused backarc spreading centre and without plumes iii retreating subduction with distributed intra arc extension and trans lithospheric sedimentary plumes iv advancing subduction with underplating laterally extending sub lithospheric plumes and v stable to advancing subduction with stationary laterally limited sub lithospheric plumes transitions between these different regimes are mainly caused by the concurrence of rheological weakening effects of i aqueous fluids percolating from the subducting slab into the mantle wedge and ii melts propagating from the partially molten areas formed in the mantle wedge towards the surface the aqueous fluids mainly affect the forearc region strong fluid related weakening promotes plate decoupling and reduces subduction drag and thus results in stacking of sediments in the accretion prism in contrast reduced weakening by fluids results in strong coupling of the plates and leads to advancing collision like subduction with enhanced subduction erosion thickening of the overriding plate and large sedimentary plumes in the mantle wedge are the consequences on the other hand melts extracted from the hot regions above the slab rheologically weaken the lithosphere below the arc which thus controls overriding plate extension and shortening strong rheological weakening by melts in combination with weak plate coupling trigger retreating subduction with a pronounced backarc spreading centre also weakening of the continental lithosphere by melts extracted from trans lithospheric sedimentary plumes generate a weak channel through which these structures may be emplaced into subarc crust if there is insufficient melt related weakening plumes cannot ascend but extend horizontally and thus underplate the lithosphere

hydrocarbon generating potential of humic coals from dry pyrolysis for comparing the oil and gas generation potential of humic coals two immature subbituminous coals australia gippsland an oil prone eocene coal ro 0 37 hi 237 5 and a gas prone rocky mountain upper cretaceous coal ro 0 45 hi 110 5 as well as an exinite poor vitrinite dominant gulf coast wilcox lignite ro 0 32 hi 183 7 were selected for dry pyrolysis at 300 degrees c from 2 to 1000 hr the results indicate that australia gippsland eocene coal gec generated four times as much liquid hydrocarbon i e c 12 saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons as the rocky mountain coal rmc whereas both coals have the same potential for generation of gaseous hydrocarbons wilcox lignite wl generated as much liquid hydrocarbon as gec the two coals ge and rmc and lignite wl exhibit similar h c ratios have high pristane phytane ratios of 5 0 4 5 and 5 1 respectively and sigma 13 c values of 25 7 24 9 and 25 5 parts per mil in rmc gec and wl respectively the study suggests that the relative abundances of various macerals exinite vitrinite and inertinite are not critical to the hydrocarbon generating potential rather the amount of dispersed algae and bacterial material unidentified in the coal probably is more significant depositional environment of the source organic material also may be important because it could control preservation of organic constituents because of the small stable isotope variations in c h n in the original coal kerogen as well as residual kerogen after pyrolysis of the three coals it seems unlikely that isotopic composition can characterize coal depositional environments

study of physical and chemical properties of vitrinites inferences on depositional and coalification controls abstract a detailed study of petrological geochemical textural and coking properties was carried out on vitrains from the puertollano blanzy montceau asturias and teruel the objective was to determine in depth the physical and chemical properties of a series of natural and pure vitrinites of different rank and the influence that the sedimentary and post sedimentary conditions had on them it is demonstrated that although vitrains are almost entirely made up of the huminite vitrinite maceral group they have a different composition thermal behaviour and physical properties thus geochemical and textural properties of blanzy montceau vitrains can be considered to be representative of the telinite the major component in both samples 75 vol at the beginning of the bituminization stage subbituminous high volatile c bituminous coals the characteristics of the puertollano vitrains described here can also be attributed to the telocollinite 80 vol for the high volatile c bituminous coal variations in physico chemical properties between puertollano and blanzy montceau vitrains are due to the differences in the initial composition of organic matter slight differences i e bed moisture content or porosity between vitrains from the two coal seams in the same basin can be attributed to their stratigraphic position several parameters such as s 2 hi oil and extraction yield and fluorescent properties suggest that the puertollano and blanzy montceau vitrains have a lower hydrocarbon potential the relationships between geochemical and textural properties make it possible to distinguish between normal and perhydrous vitrains the two different hydrogen enrichment processes that occur in vitrains from the teruel and asturias basins can be distinguished from the extraction yield data

internal deformation and compaction of the makran accretionary wedge the makran accretionary wedge is one of the largest on earth a 7 km thick column of sands and quartzolithic turbidites are incorporated into this wedge in a series of deformed thrust sheets we present the results of prestack depth migration and focusing error analysis migration velocity analysis performed on a profile across the makran wedge the depth section shows the deformation style of the accreted sediments and the migration velocities allow us to estimate porosity variations in the sediments the thrust sheets show evidence of fault propagation folding with a long wavelength of deformation 12 km and secondary thrusting in the kink bands of the folds such that the central part of each thrust sheet is elevated to form an additional ridge this deformation style and the 15 steep surface slope of the first ridge suggest a high degree of consolidation porosities were calculated from the seismic migration velocities and the ratio of fluid pressure to lithostatic pressure was estimated for 5 locations along the profile rather than being undercompacted and overpressured as in most accretionary wedges the sedimentary input is normally compacted exponential porosity decay throughout almost the whole wedge however a slight increase in porosity and at depth with respect to the normal compaction curve indicates that the turbiditic sequence might be overpressured landward of the deformation front

the transition between makran subduction and the zagros collision recent advances in its structure and active deformation south east iran is the site of a rare case of young transition between subduction and collision we synthesized recent results in geodesy tectonics seismology and magnetism to understand the structure and kinematics of the zagros makran transition surface observations tectonics magnetism and geodesy draw a transpressive discontinuity consisting of several faults striking obliquely to the convergent plate motion whereas deeper observations seismology support a smooth transition across the fault system no lithospheric transform fault has been created even though the transition already behaves like a major boundary in terms of tectonic style seismic structure lithology and magnetism the zendan minab palami fault system consists of several faults that accommodate a transpressive tectonic regime it is the surface expression of a southward propagation of the n trending right lateral strike slip fault system of jiroft sabzevaran within each system the numerous faults will coalesce into a single lithospheric wrench fault

controls on the oil and gas potential of humic coals abstract humic coals are highly heterogeneous both with respect to maceral content and chemical composition although the oldest known humic coals albeit gas prone are of devonian age the majority of humic coals capable of generating and expelling non volatile oil are of cretaceous and tertiary age from australia new zealand and southeast asia in contrast the middle jurassic humic coals of the sleipner and hugin formations in the south viking graben of the north sea are primarily gasprone but have the capability to expel aliphatic rich volatile oil these coals have toc contents up to 80 and hydrogen indices hi ranging from 200 to 400 they are vitrinite rich with some containing up to 45 inertinite liptinite concentrations are generally around 10 20 chiefly as spores pollen and abundant resinite the main control on the oil potential of humic coals is the concentration of long chain aliphatic hydrocarbons in the coal matrix although the aliphatics have a high h c ratio the inference on hydrogen content from the rock eval pyrolysis hi value can be misleading for hi values below 500 mg hc g oc there is no relation between hi and the potential of the coals to generate non volatile oil consequently the hi is a poor indicator of the non volatile oil potential of humic coals a more robust indicator is the relative amount of c8 aliphatic groups also the bulk measure of liptinite content may also prove misleading when assessing the oil potential of coals high resinite concentrations can lead to an overprediction of the non volatile oil potential as they contribute significantly to the hi value but will generate primarily volatile aromatic rich oils expulsion from the sleipner and hugin coals appears to have occurred in a gaseous phase with preferential release of short chain alkanes

temporal geophysical signatures from contaminant mass remediation we have previously documented changes in bulk electrical conductivity self potential sp and ground penetrating radar gpr reflections in a field setting caused by biogeochemical transformations of hydrocarbon contaminated media these transformations are associated with hydrocarbon biodegradation the results of surface geophysical surveys acquired in 1996 2003 and 2007 document changes in geophysical signatures associated with removing hydrocarbon mass in the contaminated zone initial investigations in 1996 showed that relative to background the contaminated area was characterized by higher bulk electrical conductivity positive sp anomaly and attenuated gpr reflections repeated surveys in 2003 and 2007 over the contaminated area showed that in 2007 the bulk electrical conductivityhad reverted to near background conditions the positive sp anomaly became more negative and the zone of attenuated gpr reflections showed increased signal strength removal of hydrocarbon mass in the vadose zone o

global scale p wave tomography optimized for prediction of teleseismic and regional travel times for middle east events 2 tomographic inversion 1 we construct a model of three dimensional p wave velocity structure in the crust and mantle that is global in extent but with detailed upper mantle heterogeneities throughout the greater middle east region fully three dimensional ray tracing is employed to achieve accurate travel time predictions of p and pn arrivals requiring the characterization of irregular and discontinuous boundaries therefore we explicitly represent undulating seismic discontinuities in the crust and upper mantle within a spherical tessellation modeling framework the tessellation based model architecture is hierarchical in that fine node sampling is achieved by recursively subdividing a base level tessellation determining the required node spacing to effectively model a given set of data is problematic given the uneven sampling of seismic data and the differing wavelengths of actual seismic heterogeneity to address this problem we have developed an inversion process called progressive multilevel tessellation inversion pmti that exploits the hierarchical nature of the tessellation based design and allows the data to determine the level of model complexity pmti serves as an alternative to existing multiresolution approaches and robustly images regional trends while allowing localized details to emerge where resolution is sufficient to demonstrate our complete modeling concept we construct a velocity model based on teleseismic p travel time data for global events and regional pn travel time data for events occurring throughout the middle east input data are a product of the statistical procedure called bayesloc that simultaneously models all components of a multievent system including event locations origin times and arrival times described in the myers et al 2011 companion paper the initial tomographic image provides a new glimpse of the complex upper mantle velocity anomalies associated with the convergence of the arabian and indian plates with eurasia more important for event monitoring the model accurately predicts both teleseismic and regional travel times for events occurring within the middle east region

guidelines for evaluating petroleum source rock using programmed pyrolysis rock eval pyrolysis is used to rapidly evaluate the petroleum generative potential and thermal maturity of rocks accurate conclusions require programs every 30 60 ft 9 18 m understanding of interpretive pitfalls and supporting data such as visual kerogen vitrinite reflectance and elemental analyses the generative potential of coals is commonly overestimated by pyrolysis and is best determined by elemental analysis and organic petrography most coals show high s2 s3 5 and low hi values 300 mg hc g toc migrated oil and mud additives which alter rock eval data can sometimes be removed by special processing for immature rocks bimodal s2 peaks and pi values over 0 2 indicate contamination pyrolysis downgrades organic poor clay rich rocks which show lower hi and higher tmax values than isolated kerogen because of adsorption of pyrolyzate on the clays tmax values for small s2 peaks 0 2 mg hc g toc are unreliable tmax is affected by maturation organic matter type contamination and the mineral matrix s3 is sensitive to inorganic and adsorbed carbon dioxide and to instrumentation problems acidification of carbonate rich samples and proper maintenance improves s3 measurement constant sample weights 100 mg are recommended below a threshold weight tmax increases by up to 10 c and other parameters decrease organic rich samples which overload the detector can be diluted with carbonate detector linearity is determined by pyrolyzing various weights of an organic rich rock

tectonics of the zagros orogenic belt of iran new data and interpretations abstract the zagros orogenic belt of iran is the result of the opening and closure of the neo tethys oceanic realm and consists from northeast to southwest of three parallel tectonic subdivisions 1 1 the urumieh dokhtar magmatic assemblage 2 2 the sanandaj sirjan zone and 3 3 the zagros simply folded belt recent detailed and reconnaissance mapping and stratigraphie structural analyses in various parts of the belt indicate that the tectonics of the sanandaj sirjan zone is dominated by either large scale composite duplex structures or low and high angle ne dipping imbricate systems these thrust systems have transported numerous horses and sheets nappes of metamorphosed and non metamorphosed phanerozoic rocks for tens or possibly hundreds of kilometers stratigraphic evidence and synorogenic conglomerates indicate that thrusting was initiated in the late cretaceous and has continued episodically since that time shear sense indicators in various parts of the zone reveal a ne sw direction of transport thrust systems generated in each episode are superimposed upon the previous structures cutting across and displacing them and producing complicated stacks of thrust sheets southwestward transport and stacking of the thrust sheets has resulted in an increase of about 10 15 km in the thickness of the continental crust in the southwestern part of this zone the so called z main zagros thrust which has been traditionally considered as the boundary between the sanandaj sirjan zone and the zagros simply folded belt is by no means a single high angle reverse fault nor is it a narrow zone of crushed rocks but a series of low angle thrusts locally cut by normal faults these thrusts are indistinguishable from those mapped in the sanandaj sirjan zone and are geometrically part of the sanandaj sirjan zone structures there is no single thrust among them that can be singled out and referred to as the main one the boundary of the sanandaj sirjan zone with the urumieh dokhtar magmatic assemblage to the northeast is characterized by a series of structural depressions formed by compression rock sequences including ophiolite complexes exposed along this boundary are strongly dismembered sheared and mylonitized shearing planes and foliations are either subvertical or dipping at high angles to the northeast this zone is suggested to be the suture between the afro arabian and the iranian plates overall the intensity of deformation increases northeastward from the persian gulf mesopotamian basin where strata are undeformed and horizontal through the zagros simply folded belt which is characterized by en echelon doubly plunging flexural slip folds gentle to open in the southwest and close to locally sw overturned in the northeast the intensity of deformation continues to increase further northeastward through the sanandaj sirjan zone where thrust faulting is dominant this pattern suggests that the deformational front has migrated through time from the northeastern part of the sanandaj sirjan zone i e the suture zone to its present position in the central portion of the persian gulf mesopotamian foreland basin

immature oil and condensate modification of hydrocarbon generation model for terrestrial organic matter petroleum has been found in canadian frontier basins in reservoirs which have undergone low levels of thermal alteration vitrinite reflectance 0 6 ro paraffin indices stable carbon and hydrogen isotope contents pristane to nc17 ratios and diterpenoid biologic markers have been used to assess the level of maturity of the hydrocarbons in the reservoir independently of the level of maturity of the reservoir itself and of the surrounding shale units in the tertiary of the beaufort mackenzie basin naphthenic oils and condensates have been generated from terrestrially derived organic matter in source rocks juxtaposed with the reservoir at reflectance levels of 0 4 to 0 6 ro however condensates discovered in reservoirs which are th rmally immature on the labrador shelf have undergone extensive vertical migration and can be classed as conventional mature to overmature condensates hydrocarbons discovered in the lower cretaceous of the beaufort mackenzie basin and also those of the scotian shelf are more or less in place in that they are at a level of thermal alteration about equivalent to that of the reservoirs in which they are trapped the source for the early oils and condensates is considered to be resinite occurring dispersed in coal fragments the proportion of resinite liptinite and vitrinite in the organic matter of terrestrial source rocks strongly controls both the level of thermal alteration necessary for the section to function as an effective source rock and the ultimate product gas oil or condensate which will be generated

relationships between coal quality and organic geochemical parameters a case study of the hafik coal deposits sivas basin turkey abstract this study provides coal quality organic petrographic and organic geochemical data on tertiary subbituminous coal of the hafik area northwestern part of the sivas basin turkey coal petrological studies along with proximate and ultimate analyses were undertaken to determine the organic petrographic characteristics of the hafik coals huminite reflectances were found to be between 0 38 and 0 48 corresponding to an organic material rich and coal layers values characteristic of low maturity this parameter shows a good correlation with calorific values average 21 060 kj kg and average t max 422 c mineral matter diagenesis indicating immaturity the studied coals and organic material underwent only low grade transformation a consequence of low lithostatic pressure therefore the hafik coals are actually subbituminous in rank rock eval analysis results show types ii iii and iii kerogens the organic fraction of the coals is mostly comprised of humic group macerals gelinites with small percentages derived from the inertinite and liptinite groups in this study organic petrographic organic geochemical and coal quality data were compared the hafik deposit is a high ash high sulfur coal the mineral matter of the coals is comprised mainly of calcite and clay minerals

classification and thermal history of petroleum based on light hydrocarbons abstract classifications of oils and kerogens are described two indices are employed termed the heptane and isoheptane values based on analyses of gasoline range hydrocarbons the indices assess degree of paraffinicity and allow the definition of four types of oil normal mature supermature and biodegraded the values of these indices measured in sediment extracts are a function of maximum attained temperature and of kerogen type aliphatic and aromatic kerogens are definable only the extracts of sediments bearing aliphatic kerogens having a specific thermal history are identical to the normal oils which form the largest group 41 in the sample set this group was evidently generated at subsurface temperatures of the order of 138 149 c 280 300 f defined under specific conditions of burial history it is suggested that all other petroleums are transformation products of normal oils

active mud volcanoes on and offshore eastern makran pakistan to study the activity source and driving force of the venting of fluidized mud in the coastal makran we carried out reconnaissance surveys of two active onshore mud volcano fields chandragup and jebel u ghurab and of a newly born march 1999 offshore mud volcano malan island all studied on and offshore mud volcanoes line up along one southwest northeast trending structural lineament the axis of the dhak anticline isotopic data point to a bacterial origin of the gas mainly methane mixed benthic foraminiferal faunas and calcareous nannofloras suggest that the source level of the extruded mud is at a sub surface depth of 2 3 km observed mud discharge varied between 0 and 1 4 m3 h 1 and gas discharge rates between negligible amounts to 1 m3 s 1 mud temperatures in the crater lake of chandragup i are near ambient temperatures they rise slightly 1 5 c during episodes of modest mud outflow an area of 160 000 m3 of soft mud was vigorously extruded from the sea floor at a water depth of 10 m within days after 15 march 1999 forming malan island the island was destroyed within a few months after its birth by deep reaching wave action during the sw monsoon this was possibly aided by local subsidence of the mud volcano structure due to the volume loss following rapid degassing and mud extrusion

the petroleum potential of some tertiary lignites from northern greece as determined using pyrolysis and organic petrological techniques abstract oil condensate and gas have recently been discovered in the thermaikos gulf area of northern greece the source of these hydrocarbons is not known although there is a possibility that more mature equivalents of certain tertiary brown coals and lignites may be responsible a contribution from tertiary terrestrial organic matter to the epanomi oil is supported by its biomarker distributions especially the predominance of triterpenoid compounds other than hopanes in the m z 191 mass fragmentogram in this study the hydrocarbon potential of a suite of greek tertiary lignites is first examined using rock eval analysis three samples are then further investigated using organic petrography and gas chromatography gc and gas chromatography mass spectrometry gc ms of the extracted hydrocarbon fractions as well as by hydrous pyrolysis an intermontane lignite 6og 5 contains fluorescing huminite together with resinite on extraction this resinite is found to be of predominantly diterpenoid origin rock eval and hydrous pyrolysis support previous proposals that diterpenoid resinite needs a lower activation energy to generate hydrocarbons than most other types of organic matter a sample of a lignite deposited in a deltaic environment mm 3 contains a more diverse collection of liptinite macerals with resinite again predominating the resinite appears to be mostly of triterpenoid and sesterterpenoid origin the best hydrocarbon potential is shown by a sample deposited in a lagoonal environment kas 3 little discrete resinite is observed in this sample but it does contain abundant fluorescing huminite although it has a low s 1 s 1 s 2 ratio it gives a high yield on solvent extraction during which a significant fraction of the s2 is removed the fluorescence of the huminite after extraction is greatly reduced the hydrocarbons of the extract are believed to be predominantly derived from triterpenoid resinite unlike the pyrolysates of the other two lignites but in common with the epanomi oil the triterpenoids in the kas 3 pyrolysate are dominated by resin derived compounds rather than hopanes this and other similarities between the composition of the pyrolysates of kas 3 and the oil support the possibility that a more mature equivalent of this lignite could be the source of the epanomi oil

oleanane or lupane reappraisal of the presence of oleanane in cretaceous tertiary oils and sediments nonpolar gc columns are normally used for gc ms analysis of saturate fractions from crude oils under these conditions lupane coelutes with oleananes and some minor c30 compounds of non terrigenous origin having lupane like mass spectra because any peak eluting fractionally earlier than 17 21 h hopane in the m z 191 mass chromatogram is routinely assigned to oleanane the presence of lupane may sometimes have been overlooked lupane and oleananes are easily separated using reverse phase hplc triterpane concentrates from 10 crude oils known to contain oleananes were hplc separated lupane was unambiguously identified in six of the oils by full scan gc ms analysis of fractions having the hplc retention time of authentic lupane gc separation of lupane and oleananes is possible using polar gc columns having a polyethylene glycol stationary phase organic geochemistry 23 1995 21 allowing estimation of the lupane lupane oleanane ratio high ratios were measured in the marraat oil west greenland 0 8 and the amauligak oil from the beaufort mackenzie delta 0 26 the results suggest that lupane may be more frequently occurring than previously thought and that this compound is preferably associated with high latitude samples high concentrations of 28 nor and 24 28 bisnortriterpanes oleananes lupanes and taraxastanes were detected in the marraat oil

petrological and chemical characteristics of liptinite rich coals from alberta canada a suite of liptinite rich coals from the lower cretaceous mannville group in the subsurface of alberta canada has been studied with respect to its organic petrology and organic geochemistry the samples are rich in fluorescing vitrinite perhydrous sporinite cutinite exsudatinite and bituminite rock eval analysis shows that the coals are enriched in hydrogen hydrogen index up to 320 mg hc g toc and depleted in oxygen oxygen index up to 11 mg co2 g toc the value of tmax ranges from 445 to 460 c indicating a late catagenic level of thermal maturity equivalent to ro 1 0 1 1 but the vitrinite reflectance is between 0 68 and 0 81 indicating that it is lowered by as much as 0 4 the pyrolysis chromatograms of the coal samples are dominated by substituted benzenes toluene and xylenes naphthalenes phenanthrenes substituted phenols cresols and small amounts of n alkanes in the range c20 gas chromatography mass spectrometry of the steranes and terpanes indicates little or no contribution of allochthonous bitumen to the coals in addition the mz 217 sterane traces are dominated by c29 compounds with little c27 and c28 this along with the high terpane to sterane ratio mz 191 to mz 217 8 8 indicates that the bitumen was generated from terrestrially derived organic matter the bitumen in the coals has most likely been autogenerated by the coals themselves in response to thermal stress the originally sapropelic coals were probably deposited in an anaerobic environment and were much enriched in hydrogen this study shows that terrigenous organic matter when associated with an anomalous liptinite content may have the potential to generate bitumen

pliocene lignites from apofysis mine amynteo basin northwestern greece petrographical characteristics and depositional environment coal petrological investigation along with proximate and elemental analyses were undertaken to determine the petrographic characteristics of the apofysis lignites amynteo basin northwestern greece and their depositional environment eight samples representing different lignite beds of the apofysis deposit were collected from a borehole the apofysis lignites have an eu ulminite b reflectance of rr 0 22 and in terms of lithotype belong to matrix soft brown coals huminite is the most abundant maceral group and consists mostly of humodetrinite inertinite has relatively low percentages whereas liptinite concentrations are low in the lower lignite beds and higher in the upper ones ternary plots and facies indices were employed in order to investigate the palaeoenvironment the depositional environment of the apofysis lignites is not definitely ascribed to a forest swamp or a reed marsh environment the high ash content of the analysed samples is a clear indication of a topogenous setting low tissue preservation index tpi and high gelification index gi values are observed high alkalinity and strongly reducing conditions may be inferred from the presence of syngenetic framboidal pyrite the low tpi values which indicate high bacterial activity and thus high ph conditions and the preservation of gastropod shells and chlorophyllinite high gi indicates a constant influx of calcium rich waters into the coal swamp the apofysis lignite deposit may be interpreted to be autochthonous to hypoautochthonous the peat accumulation was governed by a high groundwater level wet telmatic to limno telmatic facies and a moderate subsidence rate

interaction between accretionary thrust faulting and slope sedimentation at the frontal makran accretionary prism and its implications for hydrocarbon fluid seepage 1 using high resolution seismic profiles and other geophysical data collected during r v meteor cruise m74 2 we investigate the distribution patterns of shallow sediments their structure and deformation processes and their role in the migration accumulation and seepage of hydrocarbon rich fluids here we show that rapid syn kinematic sedimentation at the frontal makran accretionary prism provides a mechanism by which emerging imbricated thrust packets override the footwall at the seafloor without significant mass wasting and destruction of fault related anticline in the hanging wall these anticlines may rise high above the seafloor to form plate boundary parallel ridges and distinguish from simple thrust blocks seen at convergent margins elsewhere with the fast burial of many thrust faults by the syn kinematic sediments anticlinal growth structures form in these syn kinematic sediments by continuous thrust activity the anticlinal structures preserved within the cores of the ridges or formed from these syn kinematic sediments act as structural traps for migrating hydrocarbon rich fluids above which fluid escape structures are generated leading to seafloor seeps most of the discovered hydrocarbon seeps around sixth ridge are sourced from these traps despite the compressional environment and the rapid syn kinematic sedimentation rates shallow subsurface of the frontal makran is a normally pressured regime in which the buoyancy of hydrocarbons may account for the fluid migration in this important respect the makran accretionary prism differs from many other convergent margins and accretionary prisms where fluid flow is largely driven by tectonically induced overpressure

the influence of thermochemical sulphate reduction on hydrocarbon composition in nisku reservoirs brazeau river area alberta canada abstract the upper devonian nisku formation reservoirs of the brazeau river area of west central alberta canada produce oil and sweet and sour gas condensate generally oil pools are located updip in the study area and sour 6 31 h2s gas condensate downdip h2s in the study area is formed by thermochemical sulphate reduction tsr all liquid hydrocarbons probably have one source with the duvernay formation being the most likely candidate assessing the relative maturity of the oils and condensates is difficult because of the wide variation in thermal maturity and the effects of tsr but the ratio of pristane n heptadecane does appear to decrease with increasing maturity for this sample set with increasing tsr the following changes were noted decrease in the saturate aromatic hydrocarbon ratio increase in the relative abundance of organo sulphur compounds e g benzothiophenes 34s values of liquid hydrocarbon samples approached the values for anhydrite of the nisku formation in the study area and an increase in 13c of the saturate fraction h2s concentrations in hydrodynamically isolated pools provide a good estimate of the extent of tsr in these reservoirs however other pools have anomalously high h2s concentrations for their depth suggesting that the h2s was generated at greater depths and migrated updip into these pools

hydrocarbon distribution in coals and in dispersed organic matter of different maceral compositions and maturities more than 60 samples from 5 coal seams and adjacent siltstones and sandstones were selected from a well through westphalian b sediments from northern germany in order to study bitumen generation and migration the cores were drilled between 1200 und 1530 metres depth in this interval vitrinite reflectance rr is increasing from 0 70 to 0 92 results reveal high hydrocarbon generation potentials for all coal samples but not for adjacent clastic rocks although maceral compositions of both are quite similar yields and compositions of thermal extracts from the coals depend on maceral compositions and rank however the bulk of the already generated bitumen has not been removed during natural coalification and is not easily releasable by thermovaporisation a mass balance based on elemental composition of dull coals indicates that in the rather narrow rank interval 0 70 0 92 rr a total mass loss of 20 may have occurred by migration this is evidenced by a loss of about 20 of the original hydrogen the rest being stored in the coals

plate tectonic evolution of the southern margin of eurasia in the mesozoic and cenozoic abstract thirteen time interval maps were constructed which depict the triassic to neogene plate tectonic configuration paleogeography and general lithofacies of the southern margin of eurasia the aim of this paper is to provide an outline of the geodynamic evolution and position of the major tectonic elements of the area within a global framework the hercynian orogeny was completed by the collision of gondwana and laurussia whereas the tethys ocean formed the embayment between the eurasian and gondwanian branches of pangea during late triassic early jurassic times several microplates were sutured to the eurasian margin closing the paleotethys ocean a jurassic cretaceous north dipping subduction boundary was developed along this new continental margin south of the pontides transcaucasus and iranian plates the subduction zone trench pulling effect caused rifting creating the back arc basin of the greater caucasus proto south caspian sea which achieved its maximum width during the late cretaceous in the western tethys separation of eurasia from gondwana resulted in the formation of the ligurian penninic pieniny magura ocean alpine tethys as an extension of middle atlantic system and a part of the pangean breakup tectonic system during late jurassic early cretaceous times the outer carpathian rift developed the opening of the western black sea occurred by rifting and drifting of the western central pontides away from the moesian and scythian platforms of eurasia during the early cretaceous cenomanian the latest cretaceous paleogene was the time of the closure of the ligurian pieniny ocean adria alcapa terranes continued their northward movement during eocene early miocene times their oblique collision with the north european plate led to the development of the accretionary wedge of the outer carpathians and its foreland basin the formation of the west carpathian thrusts was completed by the miocene the thrust front was still propagating eastwards in the eastern carpathians during the late cretaceous the lesser caucasus sanandaj sirjan and makran plates were sutured to the iranian afghanistan plates in the caucasus caspian sea area a north dipping subduction zone jumped during paleogene to the scythian turan platform the shatski terrane moved northward closing the greater caucasus basin and opening the eastern black sea the south caspian underwent reorganization during oligocene neogene times the southwestern part of the south caspian basin was reopened while the northwestern part was gradually reduced in size the collision of india and the lut plate with eurasia caused the deformation of central asia and created a system of nw se wrench faults the remnants of jurassic cretaceous back arc systems oceanic and attenuated crust as well as tertiary oceanic and attenuated crust were locked between adjacent continental plates and orogenic systems

subduction history of the tethyan region derived from seismic tomography and tectonic reconstructions 1 in the mantle underneath the tethyan suture zone large volumes of positive velocity anomalies have been imaged by seismic tomography and interpreted as the present day signature of subducted tethyan lithosphere we investigate the mesozoic cenozoic subduction history of the region by integrating independent information from mantle tomography and tectonic reconstructions three different subduction scenarios for the tethyan oceanic lithosphere representative for the available tectonic reconstructions are used to predict the present thermally anomalous volumes associated with the lithospheric surface subducted since the late mesozoic next these predicted thermal volumes and their expected positions are compared to the relevant anomalous volumes derived from seismic tomographic images in this analysis we include among others the possible effects of ridge subduction and slab detachment after the cenozoic continental collisions absolute plate motion and slab thickening in the mantle our preferred subduction model comprises the opening of large back arc oceanic basins within the eurasian margin the model points to slab thickening by a factor of 3 in the mantle in which case the estimated volumes allow for active oceanic spreading 1 2 5 cm yr in the tethyan lithosphere during convergence our results further indicate the occurrence of early oligocene slab detachment underneath the northern zagros suture zone followed by both westward and eastward propagation of the slab tear and diachronous eocene to miocene slab detachment below the eastern to western himalayas free sinking rates of the detached material of 2 cm yr in the lower mantle provide the best fit between the tomographic mantle structure and our tethyan subduction model

reconnaissance study of mineral matter and trace elements in greek lignites abstract mineral matter in low temperature ashes major oxides and trace elements were determined for twenty eight selected lignite samples and their respective 1000 c ashes from various locations in greece using x ray diffraction x ray fluorescence spectroscopy and inaa lignites ashed at lower temperature 150 c reveal the presence of quartz feldspars layer silicates pyrite gypsum bassanite and anhydrite in all samples in northwestern greece epirus kozani florina and ptolemais calcite siderite magnesite epsomite hexahydrite jarosite and meta aluminite coexist with the common occurring minerals large variation in the concentration of major constituents in the 1000 c ashes is observed sio 2 varies from 11 98 to 87 72 al 2 o 3 from 4 53 to 23 36 fe 2 o 3 from 3 01 to 39 72 cao from 0 55 to 43 05 mgo from 0 18 to 9 17 and so 3 from 0 02 to 32 72 smaller variations are exhibited by tio 2 na 2 o k 2 o and p 2 o 5 these variations are attributed to the depositional environment high concentrations of pb 548 ppm zn 2991 ppm ba 1520 ppm as 1131 and 1675 ppm mo 565 and 712 ppm w 191 420 ppm and sb 69 ppm are reported in the 1000 c ashes of the selected lignites from serres and drama northern greece samples from another location in northern greece serres yield 5000 ppm u while in drama dipotama u concentration reaches as high as 17 600 ppm the u enrichment of lignites in these locations is attributed to the leaching of this element from the superimposed u bearing volcanic rhyodacitic rocks of oligocene age in southern greece peloponnesus lignite samples from megalopolis xidias drossato and vounargo show high f ranging from 154 to 218 ppm present results indicate that not only the wide variety and combination of elements that can be used to fingerprint lignitic basins but also the possibility of extracting such valuable elements from lignites and their ashes whenever the concentration and economics warrants such an undertaking

the maastrichtian transgression onto the northwestern flank of the proto oman mountains sequences of rudist bearing beach to open shelf facies

the geotectonic history of the makran and adjacent areas of southern iran abstract the makran mountain range in southern iran has been entirely covered by regional mapping on a scale of 1 250 000 but in contrast to the mapping of oman on the other side of the gulf the recent mapping is little known the cenozoic accretionary prism in the south fronts onto a mesozoic melange zone representing earlier subduction and to the north of this is an eastwards tapering microcontinental sliver which is followed by a zone of largely intact mesozoic ophiolite complexes to the north of this lies the jaz murian depression a desert expanse with no bedrock outcrop the sanandaj sirjan bajgan dur kan microcontinental sliver which extends from turkey through the zagros to the makran is one of a number of microcontinents which detached from gondwana no later than the early triassic nw iran yazd tabas lut birk helmand farah during the mesozoic these were enclosed by tracts of ocean now represented by ophiolites and the sectors closed at different times ranging from early cretaceous to end palaeogene an analogy is drawn with the present day mediterranean the sistan ocean in the east was infilled with an immense thickness of abyssal turbidites during the eocene before it closed the field evidence indicates that there was a second cenozoic accretionary prism here but sedimentation ceased after the eocene on its collision with the back of the main makran prism this eastern sistan trough now completely occluded is compared with the still open tract separating the makran from oman at the present time and its northern extension which has been similarly occluded by collision beneath the zagros some residual very shallow inland seas persisted inland from the makran through the neogene the occurrence of blueschists in the inner ophiolite belt of the makran is discussed abyssal turbidite sedimentation continued in the main southern zone of the makran into the early miocene to be succeeded by thick shallow water sequences including reefal limestones intense tectonic dislocation at the end of the miocene was accompanied by a shift of the subduction front to its present position out in the indian ocean and uplift leading to the deposition of spectacular pliocene pleistocene fanglomerates

the petroleum generation potential and effective oil window of humic coals related to coal composition and age abstract a worldwide data set of more than 500 humic coals from the major coal forming geological periods has been used to analyse the evolution in the remaining hydrogen index hi and total quality index qi generation potentials with increasing thermal maturity and the effective oil window oil expulsion window all samples describe hi and qi bands that are broad at low maturities and that gradually narrow with increasing maturity the oil generation potential is completely exhausted at a vitrinite reflectance of 2 0 2 2 ro or tmax of 500 510 c the initial large variation in the generation potential is related to the original depositional conditions particularly the degree of marine influence and the formation of hydrogen enriched vitrinite as suggested by increased sulphur and hydrogen contents during initial thermal maturation the hi increases to a maximum value himax similarly qi increases to a maximum value qimax this increase in hi and qi is related to the formation of an additional generation potential in the coal structure the decline in qi with further maturation is indicating onset of initial oil expulsion which precedes efficient expulsion liquid petroleum generation from humic coals is thus a complex three phase process i onset of petroleum generation ii petroleum build up in the coal and iii initial oil expulsion followed by efficient oil expulsion corresponding to the effective oil window efficient oil expulsion is indicated by a decline in the bitumen index bi when plotted against vitrinite reflectance or tmax this means that in humic coals the vitrinite reflectance or tmax values at which onset of petroleum generation occurs cannot be used to establish the start of the effective oil window the start of the effective oil window occurs within the vitrinite reflectance range 0 85 1 05 ro or tmax range 440 455 c and the oil window extends to 1 5 2 0 ro or 470 510 c for general use an effective oil window is proposed to occur from 0 85 to 1 7 ro or from 440 to 490 c specific ranges for himax and the effective oil window can be defined for cenozoic jurassic permian and carboniferous coals cenozoic coals reach the highest himax values 220 370 mg hc g toc and for the most oil prone cenozoic coals the effective oil window may possibly range from 0 65 to 2 0 ro or 430 to 510 c in contrast the most oil prone jurassic permian and carboniferous coals reach the expulsion threshold at a vitrinite reflectance of 0 85 0 9 ro or tmax of 440 445 c

morphotectonics and mechanics of the central makran accretionary wedge off pakistan abstract swath bathymetry images and 3 5 khz data acquired during rv sonne cruise 123 in autumn 1997 are the base for analysing the morphology and deformation styles of the huge makran accretionary wedge the continental slope off pakistan is characterised by three morphological provinces a the lower slope is built of a sequence of imbricate thrust slices which form long and narrow accretionary ridges with flanks locally as steep as 20 and between 10 and 20 on average while the regional slope is only 1 2 b the nearly flat mid slope terrace is present in the central east part of the margin narrows significantly towards the east and is absent east of 63 45 and c the upper slope up to the shelf has a regionally uniform slope as steep as about 8 and comprises a very rough topography with many gullies and canyons and evidence for mass wasting two meandering canyons crossing the entire margin down to the abyssal plain at about 63 15 63 30 can be correlated with onshore rivers they have been formed by episodic erosion through turbidity flows and are characterised by erosional and depositional portions sinuosity of the canyons is exclusively caused by the accretionary ridges functioning as obstacles for flow to be directly downhill application of coulomb rheology to the frontal part of the makran wedge implies that the mid level decollement is intrinsically extraordinary weak with a great strength contrast to the overlying sediments comparison with nankai cascadia and the western mediterranean ridge reveals new insights in the parameters controlling the shape of an accretionary wedge and the role of a mid level decollement

new constraints on upper mantle s velocity structure and crustal thickness of the iranian plateau using partitioned waveform inversion summary the continental collision between the african and eurasian plates resulted in a tectonically young and complex deformation in the iranian plateau the present day iranian plateau is characterized by diverse tectonic domains including the continental collisions e g zagros and alborz and the oceanic plate subduction e g makran partitioned waveform inversion method is used here to image the s velocity structure of the upper mantle and moho depth variations in the iranian plateau of nearly 3000 waveforms originally selected for the analysis we have fitted 974 waveforms from 101 events and 39 stations which result in 11 688 linear constraints on the upper mantle s velocity structure and moho depth for the region our new seismic images show seismically faster upper mantle beneath the zagros and the arabian plate compared to the central iran and alborz this high velocity anomaly has descended beneath the central iran along the main zagros thrust across the zagros collision zone the tomographic images show a slab stagnation in the transition zone at about 410 km depth in the form of a horizontal high velocity zone which does not penetrate the deeper parts of the mantle the lowest s velocities are concentrated beneath the central iran and alborz according to our velocity models a strong high velocity anomaly is resolved beneath the trapped south caspian basin with clear indication of westward underthrusting beneath the talesh and western alborz in makran southeast iran there is a clear evidence of subduction of oceanic crust of the arabian plate beneath the makran belt which is correlated with seismicity pattern across the makran zone also the inverted moho map using a priori information of crustal thickness constraints shows the large crustal thickness beneath the zagros suture zone in some places to a maximum depth of 65 km which indicates the influence of crustal thickening and shortening beneath arabian eurasian plate boundary a significantly crustal thinning is observable across the south caspian basin compared to its margins

petrological and organic geochemical characteristics of coal samples from florina lava moschopotamos and kalavryta coal fields greece abstract coal samples from florina vevi lava moschopotamos and kalavryta basins greece have been subjected to petrographic and organic geochemical analysis the reflectance of the samples ranged from 0 26 to 0 42 which ranks them as soft brown coals and sub bituminous c coals lower reflectance values were encountered in the florina and kalavryta coals whereas higher values were obtained for lava and moschopotamos samples maceral composition of the samples from the florina area shows a high concentration of textinite a and texto ulminite a the samples from the lava and moschopotamos area are comparatively rich in humodetrinite samples from florina are rich in resinite whereas samples from lava are rich in liptodetrinite rock eval pyrolysis data show that the samples from florina and kalavryta have generally high hi si and s2 and low t max values the coal samples from moschopotamos and lava show the opposite having low hi s1 and s2 values these distinct differences are related to the maceral composition tissue rich in resinitic material and rank of the coals gas chromatography of the saturate fraction indicates that the samples from the lava and moschopotamos are rich in n alkanes from n c 23 to n c 33 in contrast the samples from florina are rich in diterpanes whereas those from kalavryta are rich in sesquiterpenoids gas chromatography mass spectrometry of the saturate fraction reveals that the diterpenoids present in the lignites from kalavryta are derivatives of abietanic acid and pimaric acid which are found in pinaceae the lignites from florina mainly contain the diterpane phyllocladane which implies an input from cupressaceae and or taxodiacaea the difference in the composition of these xylitic lignites may be attributed to differences in gymnosperm input as a response to climatic change as the kalavryta coals are of pliocene age whereas the florina coals are of miocene age the study suggests that the petrology and organic geochemistry of these coals are related to the different peat forming plant communities that were present in the florina kalavryta lava and moschopotamos basins a mainly non woody angiosperm dominated vegetation made up the peat that went to form the coal deposits of lava and moschopotamos while the florina and kalavryta lignites were formed by peats derived mainly from gymnosperms

molecular characterisation of vitrinite in relation to natural hydrogen enrichment and depositional environment the py gc ms results of the study carried out on two groups of vitrinites perhydrous and non perhydrous of diaerent age and properties and on a trimaceralic coal associated with one of the perhydrous group are discussed such a study provides information about the eaect of natural hydrogen enrichment on vitrinite structure at the molecular level moreover the influence of the diaerent conditions in the sedimentary environment on the chemical structure of the vitrinite is also discussed this influence is inferred through diaerences in the distribution and relative amount of phenolic compounds found in the pyrolysates from two samples of two diaerent coal beds in the same basin but formed under diaerent paleoenvironmental conditions for vitrinites with a high h c atomic ratio despite having a strong perhydrous character their pyrolysates exhibit the highly phenolic signature typical of lignin derived material with only minor aliphatic compounds thus the major chemical structural elements in these vitrinites are simple phenols with a high contribution of para alkyl substituted derivatives however there is no parallel relationship between the evolution of the oxygenated functionalities and the reflectance values from the results obtained a coalification pathway where hydrogenation processes predominate over thermal ones is proposed the presence of resin like substances and or oils which are two of the causes of natural hydrogen enrichment in the molecular structure of vitrinites have therefore aaected the normal evolution of the lignin and contributed to the special properties of this type of materials 2000 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

evaluation of petroleum generation from resinites by hydrous pyrolysis hydrous pyrolysis experiments are useful in evaluating the composition yield and kinetics of liquid hydrocarbons generated from potential source rocks using this technique on a representative set of resinites revealed that fossil resin does not generate a light naphthenic crude oil gas chromatograms of liquid hydrocarbons generated by resinites are dominated by aromatic peaks and show no resemblance to commercially produced crude oils resinites may make minor contributions to conventionally sourced crude oils but their limited occurrence inhibits their potential as a prolific source of petroleum on a basinal scale data from the natural system and pyrolysis experiments also indicate that resinites do not generate liquid hydrocarbons at abnormally low levels of therm l maturity

comparisons of the kinematics and deep structures of the zagros and himalaya and of the iranian and tibetan plateaus and geodynamic implications 1 we compare the geologic histories the deep structures and the present day kinematics of deformation of the himalaya and the adjacent tibetan plateau with those of the zagros and iranian plateau to test geodynamic processes of continental collision shortly after india and arabia collided with eurasia horizontal shortening manifested itself by folding and thrust faulting of sedimentary rock detached from india s and arabia s underlying crystalline basement subsequently slip on thrust faults stacked slices of india s basement to build the himalaya on india s northern margin such faulting has not yet developed in the zagros where collision is more recent and arabia penetrates into eurasia more slowly than india does so that postcollision convergence with eurasia is less the greater elevation thicker crust and more marked heterogeneity of the upper mantle beneath the tibetan than beneath the iranian plateau also reflect a more advanced stage of development moreover while thrust or reverse faulting and crustal shortening continue on the margins of both plateaus normal faulting suggesting horizontal extension and crustal thinning occurs within tibet but not in iran hence the balance of forces that built the high tibetan plateau must have changed apparently some time since 15 ma removal of tibetan mantle lithosphere could have altered that balance if mantle lithosphere beneath the iranian plateau has been removed however the change in force balance has been too small to initiate normal faulting low seismic wave speeds in the uppermost mantle just beneath the moho of both plateaus suggest to us that lithosphere beneath both is thin consistent with late cenozoic removal of it but alternative explanations might account for these low speeds despite its apparently thin and hence presumably weak mantle lithosphere much of central iran undergoes little deformation it illustrates how a crustal block can behave rigidly not necessarily because it is strong but because deviatoric stresses can be small whereas differences between the two regions clearly depend on the amount that arabia and india have penetrated into eurasia which scales with both the dates of collision and rates of convergence we see no differences in the operative processes that depend on the present day rates of convergence

a tectonic pulse in the makran accretionary prism recorded in iranian coastal sediments many recent studies of syndeformational sediments in a wide range of tectonic environments have improved our understanding of the development of individual or regional deformation structures here we report studies of growth strata that imply an unexpected tectonic history within part of the makran accretionary prism currently the largest on earth we interpret the lithostratigraphy and ichnofacies of plio pleistocene marine deposits logged along part of the makran coast in terms of their palaeoenvironments lateral trends in thickness and depositional facies of rock units and erosional surfaces among them are correlated and then related to displacements along syndepositional faults that are distinguishable from changes in global sea level past studies of accretionary prisms have emphasized thrusting at the deformation front offshore however at the shoreline we find episodes of deposition during subsidence as a result of oblique slip normal faulting alternating with episodes of erosion during uplift driven by oblique slip thrusting the absolute timing of these displacements is not yet known however faults above a deep zone of subcretion or underplating well behind the surficial deformation front have clearly undergone episodic reversals in throw that imply alternations in lateral shortening and extension

the rotation of arabia and the levant fault system abstract we establish the kinematics of the rotation of arabia with respect to africa and show that the rotation rate of africa increased by a factor of about four in late serravallian time about 12 13 ma ago we discuss evidence that oceanic accretion started simultaneously in the gulf of aden and in the red sea at this time it is also at this time that the levant and anatolian fault systems were initiated our initial reconstruction of the red sea rift in late oligocene early miocene time approximately superposes the present shore lines which coincide with the mid point of the zones of rapid crustal thinning the future continental slopes the amount of extension during the early phase of continental rifting is obtained by assuming that the total volume of continental crust is conserved during extension and by checking these estimates through closure around the sinai triple junction in the late miocene the southern evant fault zone was a zone of distributed shear deformation through counterclockwise block rotation extending soul h ward within the northernmost red sea since the early pliocene the shear motion has been localized within the gulf of aqaba changing the tectonic pattern in the northern red sea

out of sequence thrusts out of sequence thrusts oost are those thrusts which do not obey the foreland propagating or in sequence deformation style they include both isolated thrusts which develop hindward of the thrust front and sequences of break back thrusts which propagate from the foreland to the hinterland two end members of a series of oost types are recognized 1 older in sequence thrusts which are reactivated along their entire length and 2 completely new thrusts which propagate through already deformed thrust sheets between the two end members are thrusts composed partially of reactivated in sequence thrust sequences and partially of new entirely out of sequence segments oosts can be initiated for a variety of reasons including 1 keeping the orogenic wedge at critical taper 2 break back sequences from the suture zone in the overriding plate 3 ramping to overcome a sticking point which inhibits in sequence thrust propagation and 4 during simultaneous displacement along two stacked thrusts culminations which bow up segment of the upper thrust may be chopped through to permit continued displacement on the upper thrust many different types of thrust behavior including gravity sliding plucking and derivation of isolated horses from ramps may mimic some of the characteristics of oosts consequently it may be difficult to conclusively prove an oost origin for a complex thrust geometry

hydrocarbon system analysis in a rift basin with mixed marine and nonmarine source rocks the south viking graben north sea the south viking graben of the north sea is a prolific oil and gas province that has recoverable reserves of approximately 176 x 109 sm3 standard cubic meters 6 2 tcf gas 58 x 106 t 412 million boe natural gas liquids and 12 5 x 106 sm3 78 million bbl of black oil contained in the main fields sleipner vest sleipner ost and volve these fields are located primarily within block 15 9 in the norwegian sector and extend into neighboring blocks 15 6 and 16 7 the principal source of black nonvolatile oil is the late jurassic draupne formation which has a predominance of marine algal organic matter the lower section of the draupne formation together with the heather formation are organically leaner and contain a mixture of marine algal and terrigenous organic matter resulting in a potential to generate both oil and gas the middle jurassic hugin and sleipner formations contain humic coals and coaly shales with potential to generate gas and some light liquids these coals contain on average 80 90 vitrinitic woody material with occasional enrichment of resinite high resinite concentrations can lead to an overprediction of oil potential as they contribute significantly to the hydrogen index hi but generate primarily low molecular weight aromatic compounds all source rock facies types have reached maturities sufficient to generate oil and gas basin modeling suggests that onset of oil and gas generation started during the latest cretaceous early paleocene these source rocks have continued to yield oil and gas to the present day in many parts of the catchment area for the sleipner fields detailed geochemical analyses identified five main oil and condensate families family a comprises condensates and oil located in the northernmost part of sleipner vest and dagny generated from a marine clastic source with a predominance of type ii algal organic matter family b is condensates in the middle to southern part of sleipner vest generated from a source or a contribution from several source facies with mixed terrigenous higher plant organic matter and marine algal material family c consists of condensates reservoired in the jurassic of sleipner ost except well 15 9 a15 generated from a mixed algal terrigenous source but with a higher contribution of hydrocarbons from a marine algal source as compared with the sleipner vest family b family d comprises condensates in the jurassic triassic of loke and gungne in well 15 9 a15 from the crest of the sleipner ost structure as well as condensates within the paleocene sands of sleipner ost these condensates have a mixed terrigenous higher plant and marine algal signature and are derived from pre upper draupne formation sources family e is the black oil present in the jurassic volve field derived from a marine calcareous shale with type ii to ii s organic matter the source rock for this oil is unique in the greater sleipner area and is likely located in the isolated subgraben between the northern parts of sleipner vest and sleipner ost the hydrocarbon gases are broadly similar and are interpreted to have been generated from coals and coaly shales of the sleipner and hugin formations as well as those parts of the pre upper draupne section that have a predominance of terrigenous higher plant organic matter

hydrocarbon potential of middle and upper devonian coals from melville island arctic canada abstract some of the oldest coals in the world are found within the middle to upper devonian clastic wedge of the canadian arctic archipelago the coals investigated here occur in the weatherall hecla bay and beverly inlet formations on western melville island and range in age from late givetian to middle frasnian many of these coals are rich in liptinite macerals particularly sporinite and hence can be termed canned coals both elemental and rock eval analysis indicate these coals have the potential to generate liquid hydrocarbons a good correlation between liptinite with both h c or hydrogen index is observed up to about 50 liptinite after which the latter two parameters level off the coals range in maturity from 0 61 to 0 87 r o and hence should be in the oil window the amounts of hydrocarbons that can be extracted from the coals when expressed in mg g organic carbon are very low suggesting that they are poor source rocks for oil all the extracts except for the most mature and vitrinite rich sample show high pr ph ratios and biomodal n alkane distributions a cannel coal from the beverley inlet formation has a very unusual triterpane distribution that includes regular ab ring desmethyl and ab ring methyl hopanes steranes are in very low concentrations compared to hopanes in all samples the relative abundance of c 28 and c 29 steranes appears to be influenced by maceral composition hydrous pyrolysis at 330 c for 72 h generated greater amounts of hydrocarbons from the coals suggesting they could be the source of liquid hydrocarbons at greater maturities the hydrous pyrolysis experiments also indicate that thin walled spores are more reactive than thick walled spores at lower temperatures the coals on melville island are not thought to be significant source rocks for the oil and gas occurrences in this area of the canadian arctic because they make up only a very small fraction of the total sedimentary package

coal and coal macerals as source rocks for oil and gas abstract the role of coals in the generation and migration of hydrocarbons is discussed from the viewpoints of chemistry and petrology extract data and considerations of volatile matter and maturity suggests that under geochemical conditions most coals can give rise to oil as well as gas a distinction is drawn between release of absorbed oil and formation of hydrocarbons by thermal breakdown of the coal matrix itself the generation and preservation of oil require not only that suitable lipidic structures be present but that the product oil can escape before being cracked to gas exinite preferably in large discrete particles is the most oil prone maceral vitrinite can form oil but subsequent migration depends on the availability of cracks and fissures in the coal matrix the most highly reflecting forms of inertinite e g fusinite have no inherent capacity to generate oil low reflectance inertinite such as is common in many australian coals may have minor source potential a speculative attempt is made to quantify the oil generating capacity of coal macerals and mixtures as a general broad rule on a weight basis exinite can produce ten times more oil than vitrinite and a hundred times more than inertinite approximate calculations suggest that thermal maturation of coals can account for all the known oil and gas reserves in the gippsland and cooper basins of australia even if only 1 of generated hydrocarbons is trapped

global plate motion frames toward a unified model 1 plate tectonics constitutes our primary framework for understanding how the earth works over geological timescales high resolution mapping of relative plate motions based on marine geophysical data has followed the discovery of geomagnetic reversals mid ocean ridges transform faults and seafloor spreading cementing the plate tectonic paradigm however so called absolute plate motions describing how the fragments of the outer shell of the earth have moved relative to a reference system such as the earth s mantle are still poorly understood accurate absolute plate motion models are essential surface boundary conditions for mantle convection models as well as for understanding past ocean circulation and climate as continent ocean distributions change with time a fundamental problem with deciphering absolute plate motions is that the earth s rotation axis and the averaged magnetic dipole axis are not necessarily fixed to the mantle reference system absolute plate motion models based on volcanic hot spot tracks are largely confined to the last 130 ma and ideally would require knowledge about the motions within the convecting mantle in contrast models based on paleomagnetic data reflect plate motion relative to the magnetic dipole axis for most of earth s history but cannot provide paleolongitudes because of the axial symmetry of the earth s magnetic dipole field we analyze four different reference frames paleomagnetic african fixed hot spot african moving hot spot and global moving hot spot discuss their uncertainties and develop a unifying approach for connecting a hot spot track system and a paleomagnetic absolute plate reference system into a hybrid model for the time period from the assembly of pangea 320 ma to the present for the last 100 ma we use a moving hot spot reference frame that takes mantle convection into account and we connect this to a pre 100 ma global paleomagnetic frame adjusted 5 in longitude to smooth the reference frame transition using plate driving force arguments and the mapping of reconstructed large igneous provinces to core mantle boundary topography we argue that continental paleolongitudes can be constrained with reasonable confidence

microfacies and petroleum properties of coals as revealed by a study of north sea jurassic coals abstract the influence of the composition and microstructural aspects of coal microfacies on petroleum properties were investigated in light of petrographic and geochemical studies the first study concerns a collection of north sea jurassic coals of various maceral compositions the second study is a pyrolysis gas chromatography study on pure microlithotypes from a similar french jurassic coal the results show that hydrocarbon potential is logically increased by a high content in liptinite but more often in hydrogen rich vitrinite in the same way the hydrocarbon potential is reduced by a high inertinite content mainly due to pre sedimentary oxidation of the original biomass but also due to early diagenetic processes that lead especially to the formation of micrinite or to post sedimentary alterations these trends indicate that total hydrocarbon potential is increased by an autochthonous origin of the organic matter that was deposited in a relatively closed paleoenvironment and thus protected from detrital and organo detrital inputs finally the oil potential of humic coals as determined by open pyrolysis gas chromatographic studies as related to the weight of rock is similar to classical source rocks the structural aspects of the coal microfacies which probably play a role in the release of oil from coal seams in natural conditions are also discussed

determining the petroleum generating potential of coal using organic geochemistry and organic petrology abstract the ardjuna basin of northwest java is typical of many tertiary basins in that it contains high wax crude oil pyrolysis gas chromatography revealed that potential precursors of long chain waxy paraffins are present in coals of the talang akar formation and are most abundant in those that are rich in matrix liptinite conversely it was not possible to estimate waxy oil generating potential using rock eval because pyrolysates from talang akar coal are mainly comprised of naphthenic and aromatic compounds these being derived from resinite and fluorescing vitrinite because of a controlling influence by the abundance of these macerals changes in hydrogen index could not be used to assess maturity resinite and related macerals might play an especially important role in petroleum expulsion as evidenced by their high genetic potential and hence inherent capability of saturating the source rock pore system it is speculated that their maturation products while not constituting typical crude oil might pervade the coal fabric deactivate adsorptive sites and hence facilitate the expulsion of waxy oil that is generated from matrix liptinite

geology of the onshore makran accretionary wedge synthesis and tectonic interpretation abstract this contribution is a synthesis of studies carried out since 2004 in the makran accretionary wedge exposed in se iran these studies were intended to improve our understanding of the behaviour of accretionary wedges and of the significance of the makran wedge in the frame of tethys tectonics reassessing the stratigraphy and structure of the iranian makran has allowed distinguishing four main litho tectonic units the lithological content of these four units is briefly described to discuss the sedimentary environments which record the general filling of an oceanic basin with clastic sediments derived from the north the petrology of ophiolites exposed in the backstop region to the north of the accretionary wedge itself demonstrates the existence of an oceanic basin formed in the jurassic late cretaceous to the north of continental slivers which had separated from central iran there is petrological evidence for a subduction related magmatic arc during the late cretaceous which sourced much of the clastic material in the cretaceous lower miocene turbidites present throughout the wedge the literature survey shows that the late cretaceous to present evolution of the pakistan part of the makran fold and trust belt is in its major attributes similar to that of the iranian makran these observations and results are discussed in a tectonic model that integrates knowledge on the oman mountains on the other side of the current oman subduction

cretaceous tertiary convergence and continental collision sanandaj sirjan zone western iran abstract the sanandaj sirjan zone contains the metamorphic core of the zagros continental collision zone in western iran the zone has been subdivided into the following from southwest to northeast an outer belt of imbricate thrust slices radiolarite bisotun ophiolite and marginal sub zones which consist of mesozoic deep marine sediments shallow marine carbonates oceanic crust and volcanic arc respectively and an inner complexly deformed sub zone late palaeozoic mesozoic passive margin succession rifting and sea floor spreading of tethys occurred in the permian to triassic but in the sanandaj sirjan zone extension related successions are mainly of late triassic age subduction of tethyan sea floor in the late jurassic to cretaceous produced deformation metamorphism and unconformities in the marginal and complexly deformed sub zones deformation climaxed in the late cretaceous when a major southwest vergent fold belt formed associated with greenschist facies metamorphism and post dated by abundant palaeogene granitic plutons in the southwest of the zone a late cretaceous island arc passive margin collision occurred with ophiolite emplacement onto the northern arabian margin similar to that in oman final closure of tethys was not completed until the miocene when central iran collided with the northeast arabian margin

middle cretaceous back arc formation and arc evolution along the asian margin the shyok suture zone in northern ladakh nw himalaya abstract the shyok suture zone of the ladakh palaeovolcanic arc is made of cretaceous volcanosedimentary formations intruded by granodioritic plutons field observations show a tectonic stacking of litho units from different volcanic arc and back arc environments in the western part skardu area the shyok suture zone can be subdivided into two groups 1 the northern group which consists of olistolith basaltic blocks and tuffs the basalts are lree depleted with a lile enrichment and a slight nb depletion suggesting a back arc basin origin 2 the southern group which consists predominantly of andesites that show lree enrichment a flat hree pattern strong nb ta depletion and lile enrichment the volcanic rocks of the southern group appear to have island arc tholeiite iat to calc alkaline affinities in the eastern part of the suture zone nubra shyok area albian to cenomanian age silicoclastic sediments predominate these sediments correspond to a large detrital platform built on the northern part of the ladakh arc at the top these sediments interlayer with basaltic to andesitic lavas these lavas appear to be more differentiated and calc alkaline in nature than the skardu southern group lavas but show similar volcanic arc affinities no evidence of a back arc basin was found in this area our data from these two areas shows a northwest southeast evolution from back arc to arc formations in northern ladakh opening of this back arc basin occurred on the northwestern side of the ladakh arc this back arc was progressively closing eastward the arc itself was more mature in the east resembling the southern tibetan continental arc and was characterised by more continental sedimentation subsequent himalayan tectonometamorphic evolution closure of the back arc basin and deformation along the shyok suture reflects an early asymmetrical geometry along the asian margin and kohistan ladakh arc

occurrence and palaeoenvironmental significance of aromatic hydrocarbon biomarkers in oligocene sediments from the mallik 5l 38 gas hydrate production research well canada abstract the aromatic hydrocarbon biomarker distributions of thirty oligocene sediment samples with different lithology lignite clay and sand from the japex jnoc gsc et al mallik 5l 38 gas hydrate production research well canada were analyzed using gas chromatography mass spectrometry gc ms the compositions vary with lithology indicating a change in palaeoenvironmental conditions at the time of deposition aromatic diterpenoids of the abietane type are more abundant in the lignite samples than in the clay samples and represent a gymnosperm e g conifer dominated palaeovegetation in contrast in the clay samples aromatic triterpenoids are generally preserved as major constituents indicating angiosperm dominated vegetation the sand samples contain only minor amounts of aromatic terpenoids but show a preference for diterpenoid gymnosperm markers to recognise gymnosperm versus angiosperm dominated palaeoenvironments a new ratio termed the angiosperm gymnosperm aromatic ratio agar has been developed thus the terpenoid distribution in the deltaic sediments provides information on the compositional changes in the plant community at the mallik site lignites and the hinterland clays over time concomitantly the changing dominance in the plant communities allows an insight into varying climatic conditions during the late oligocene in the area additionally the aromatic biomarker composition has been used to assess the level of thermal maturity of the organic matter in the mallik samples and indicates a prevailing immature character

petrological palynological and geochemical characteristics of eureka sound group coals stenkul fiord southern ellesmere island arctic canada abstract late paleocene early eocene coal bearing strata are widespread across the canadian arctic archipelago laterally continuous seams of substantial thickness are present in the iceberg bay formation eureka sound group at stenkul fiord ellesmere island sixty four coal seams with a cumulative thickness of 53 m of coal occur in a 450 m sequence the investigation of the composite section is based on examination of 19 samples from seams thicker than 1 m and 7 samples from marker seams used for correlation purposes the coals consist predominantly of wood derived huminite macerals 79 98 vol structured huminite macerals are dominant in the top part of the section whereas detrital components are abundant in the lower part the liptinite fraction is dominated by sporinite and cutinite 1 9 vol inertinite content is very low except at the base of the section 0 14 vol reflectances determined on eu ulminite 0 36 0 43 r o geochemical parameters and thermal alteration indices indicate that the coals are of lignite to subbituminous rank the dominance of diterpanes and the abundance of taxodiaceae and pinaceae pollen suggest that most of the organic matter is of gymnospermous origin pinaceae pollen is abundant in the lower part of the section and taxodiaceae is abundant in the upper part the abundance of angiosperm pollen in most of the section suggests however that angiospermous plants were significant members of the flora the depositional environment for the iceberg bay formation coals at stenkul fiord is that of forested swamps on an alluvial plain pollen assemblages indicate a late paleocene early eocene age for the section and a temperate moist climate