classification of huminite iccp system 1994 abstract in the new classification iccp system 1994 the maceral group huminite has been revised from the previous classification iccp 1971 int handbook coal petr suppl to 2nd ed to accommodate the nomenclature to changes in the other maceral groups especially the changes in the vitrinite classification iccp 1998 the new vitrinite classification iccp system 1994 fuel 77 349 358 the vitrinite and huminite systems have been correlated so that down to the level of sub maceral groups the two systems can be used in parallel at the level of macerals and for finer classifications the analyst now has according to the nature of the coal and the purpose of the analysis a choice of using either of the two classification systems for huminite and vitrinite this is in accordance with the new iso coal classification that covers low rank coals as well and allows for the simultaneous use of the huminite and vitrinite nomenclature for low rank coals

biomarker and carbon isotope variation in coal and fossil wood of central europe through the cenozoic abstract carbon isotope analyses of terrigenous organic matter are often used to reconstruct changes in the isotopic composition of upper ocean and atmospheric carbon reservoirs carbon isotope values from tree rings fossil wood and coal matrices have been related to climatic change e g temperature humidity via water use efficiency of land plants in this study we report on carbon isotope analyses on low rank coal deposits of the alpine realm and middle german lignite district covering the early eocene to pliocene time interval fossil wood and extracted wood cellulose from gymnosperms and angiosperms respectively are used for paleoenvironmental reconstructions the trend in 13c is parallel to the carbon isotope record obtained from benthic foraminifera because both data sets sample a common reservoir in the atmosphere the evaluation of the magnitudes of 13c variations of coal caused by environmental change requires the correction of the 13c data due to the effects of different contents of lipids in the organic matter differences in biogeochemical carbon cycling varying contributions of gymnosperms versus angiosperms to peat formation and differences in 13c of atmospheric co2 the resulting carbon isotope record of coal generally co varies with the estimated variability in mean annual temperatures during the tertiary based on paleobotanical data changes in humidity and pco2 may be responsible for deviations between the isotopic trend and the paleotemperature curve during the miocene the obtained temperature coefficient for 13c of c3 plants of about 0 3 c is in agreement with the results of previous studies

early diagenesis of terrigenous triterpenoids and its implications for petroleum geochemistry abstract the distribution of triterpanes in sediments and crude oils is commonly used for oil oil and oil source rock correlation in petroleum geochemistry while isomer ratios of such compounds are applied as maturity parameters the triterpane pattern in terrestrially influenced geological samples is however remarkably less diverse than the triterpenoid skeletons occurring in the extant higher plant biosphere natural observations laboratory experiments and molecular mechanics calculations have revealed that acid catalysed double bond isomerization and skeletal rearrangement reactions of terrigenous triterpenoids during early diagenesis are the key to understanding the triterpane patterns in more matured geological materials examples studied in detail are the double bond isomerization of oleanenes and the subsequent hydrogenation of the products into oleanane and 18 oleanane and the transformation of taraxer 14 ene and lup 20 29 ene into oleanenes although the reactions are likely to be kinetically controlled the main products formed and ultimately preserved are the thermodynamically most stable ones the experimental results and natural observations have significant implications for the use of terrigenous triterpenoid compounds in petroleum geochemistry

distributions of gas hydrate and free gas accumulations associated with upward fluid flow in the sanriku oki forearc basin northeast japan abstract we applied automated velocity analysis to a 3d seismic data volume to obtain a high resolution seismic velocity model that we used to investigate the influence of fluid behavior on the subsurface distribution of gas in the sanriku oki forearc basin northeast japan we identified free gas accumulations as zones of low p wave velocity separated from overlying high velocity gas hydrates by the clear seismic boundary of the bottom simulating reflection bsr between them we then used conductive modeling to map upward heat flow in our study area from the depth of the bsr derived from the velocity model the estimated heat flow demonstrates that upward fluid flux has considerable influences on the distributions of both gas hydrate and free gas the areas of high heat flow representing high fluid flux correspond to underlying permeable geological features such as gas chimneys faults and the edges of porous slumps suggesting that these features provide fluid migration pathways from eocene to oligocene source rocks to free gas and hydrate accumulations in overlying sedimentary rocks the techniques we have employed can contribute to the high resolution mapping of gas hydrate and free gas accumulations in similar deep water reservoirs off the eastern continental margin of japan and at tectonically similar plate subduction margins in other regions

early diagenetic transformation of higher plant triterpenoids in deep sea sediments from baffin bay abstract a sediment sequence of early miocene to holocene from ocean drilling program site 645 in central baffin bay was found to contain abundant triterpenoids of higher plant origin including monodesmethyl derivatives and other oxidative degradation products 24 nor triterpenoids of the oleanene ursene and lupane series were found in the nonaromatic hydrocarbon and alcohol fractions of the sediment extracts other diagenetic transformation products included 24 28 dinor olean 17 ene and 24 nor urs 12 en 1 1 one as well as their tentatively identified des a counterparts the identification of these novel degradation products was confirmed by synthesis of a suite of reference compounds the simple reaction sequence applied to obtain 24 nor urs 12 ene from 3 acetoxyurs 12 en 24 oic acid is likely to happen in a similar manner during early diagenesis of organic matter in nature these results have implications for the understanding of the diagenetic reaction sequence leading to the formation of other demethylated triterpenoids of terrigenous origin e g 24 28 dinor lupanes 28 30 dinor 17 hopane is sometimes the dominant hydrocarbon in the most deeply buried samples its co occurrence with higher plant triterpenoids and the low abundance of other regular hopanoids is not considered an indication however that 28 30 dinor 17 hopane is derived from a higher plant precursor molecule it is suggested that two independent sedimentary processes are responsible for the presence of the two types of demethylated triterpenoids observed in baffin bay sediments

organic geochemical and stable carbon isotopic investigation of coals formed in low lying and raised mires within the eastern alps austria abstract up to 16 m thick coal seams formed in miocene pull apart basins within the eastern alps in low lying and raised mires despite similar rank sub bituminous stage coal quality differs significantly coals from low lying mires e g fohnsdorf are characterized by significantly higher ash yields and sulfur contents than coals from raised mires e g leoben organic geochemical and carbon isotope investigations were performed to assess the differences in facies the fohnsdorf coals are characterized by higher yields of soluble organic matter som slightly higher proportions of hydrocarbons in the som generally lower pristane phytane ratios and the occurrence of high corg normalized n alkane concentrations only n alkane patterns in the leoben samples show a marked odd over even predominance these differences are indicative of a more intensive dys to anaerobic biochemical degradation of plant material within the fohnsdorf mire terpenoid biomarkers characteristic of conifers and angiosperms were detected in the leoben coals whereas the latter are missing in the fohnsdorf samples in the leoben coals higher saturated to aromatic diterpenoid ratios were detected than in the fohnsdorf coals because of similar rank enhanced aromatisation in the fohnsdorf basin is probably related to microbial activity despite this the fohnsdorf coals are characterized by lower hopane concentrations the results imply that the aromatisation of terpenoid biomarkers is governed by the activity of anaerobic rather than aerobic bacteria an overall negative correlation between 13c of organic matter and the degree of aromatisation of diterpenoid biomarkers is observed it is suggested that the carbon isotopic composition results from different extents of microbial degradation of the biomass the fohnsdorf coals are rich in sulfur high contents of coalbed methane were encountered during mining suggesting high activities of anaerobic bacteria in a nearly neutral sulfate bearing brackish environment of the low lying mire and methanogenesis during or after coalification sulfate reduction and methanogenesis are known to increase 13c values of residual organic matter

origin of perylene in ancient sediments and its geological significance the distributions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons pahs in sediments of three upper triassic to middle jurassic sedimentary sequences from the northern carnarvon basin australia have been investigated perylene was found to be a major pah component in the top lower to base middle jurassic sediments that are immature or at low maturity its depth age profiles are not related to the combustion derived pahs that have been believed to be produced during ancient vegetation fires before deposition this suggests a diagenetic origin for perylene the concentration of perylene in the sediments is proportional to the amount of terrestrial input decreasing with distance from the source of land sediments its carbon isotope composition is slightly heavier than higher plant derived pahs but still in the range of the terrestrially sourced pahs including higher plant pahs and combustion derived pahs as suggested previously fungi are proposed to be the major precursor carriers for perylene in sediments based on the facts that 1 perylenequinone structures have been previously suggested to be the natural precursors for perylene 2 perylenequinone pigments exist in many fungal bodies 3 fungi have played an important role during geological processes

sequence stratigraphic interpretation of peatland evolution in thick coal seams examples from yimin formation early cretaceous hailaer basin china abstract peat formed in mire settings sensitively records environmental fluctuations during deposition including changes in water table or base level and accommodation on this basis coal seams as geologically preserved peats can provide evidence of high resolution paleoclimatic fluctuations as well as paleobotanical evolution through periods of peat formation the no 2 and no 1 in ascending order thick coal seams from the early cretaceous yimin formation in the zhalainuoer coalfield hailaer basin ne china are investigated using sedimentological sequence stratigraphic and petrographic analyses to understand the evolution of their peat forming environments these single thick coal seams lacking siliciclasitic partings are well developed in the central area of the zhalainuoer coalfield petrographic analyses demonstrate that water table or base level fluctuations in single seams can be revealed by a number of significant surfaces formed by various events including paludification give up transgressive accommodation reversal flooding and exposure surfaces these surfaces can separate the single coal into a number of wetting up and drying up cycles the wetting up cycle is characterized by a gradual upward increasing trend in the huminite inertinite ratio and in the ash yields in contrast the rapid drying up cycle is characterized by an upward increasing trend in the inertinite dominated coal 46 on average that represents a phase of exposure and oxidation resulting from a falling water table this drying up cycle can be correlated with the scouring surface in landward parts of the basin and terrestrialization surface basinward the no 2 coal seam occurs in the transgressive systems tract and comprises three high frequency depositional sequences in which each coal cycle is characterized by a gradual wetting up cycle and ends with a rapid drying up cycle the no 1 coal seam occurs in the highstand system tract and consists of several high frequency depositional sequences in which each coal cycle is characterized by a gradual drying up cycle and ends with a rapid wetting up cycle these coals could also superpose to constitute the thick coal seam in which various sequence stratigraphic surfaces can be recognized including terrestrialization accommodation reversal and exposure surfaces stratigraphic relationships between coal and clastic components in the yimin formation enable us to demonstrate that thick coals span the formation of several coal cycles and high resolution boundaries allowing us to interpret the effects of accommodation on coal seam composition recognition that environmental changes can be recorded by thick coals has significance for studies that incorrectly suppose that peat or coal cycles can offer high resolution and time invariant records of paleoclimatic fluctuations and paleobotany evolution

osmotic model to explain anomalous hydraulic heads laboratory experiments have shown that compacted clays act as osmotic membranes when they separate aqueous solutions of unequal ionic concentration theoretically osmotically induced differential hydraulic pressure in groundwater systems can be relatively high the magnitude depends primarily upon concentration differences across the membrane type of ions type of clay and pore size in experiments thin compacted clay membranes commonly exhibit varying degrees of osmotic efficiency due to ion leak age through the clay in natural systems the membrane and the solution containers are not as distinct and well defined as they are in the laboratory moreover the membrane is commonly thick inhomogeneous and composite in a buried triassic basin at the savannah river plant near aiken south carolina it is suspected that osmosis causes the saline water in the basin center to be slightly geopressurized in relation to freshwater in the overlying coastal plain aquifer two wells have heads of 7 88 and 12 98 bars 114 3 and 188 3 psi above the head in the coastal plain aquifer the head in each of these wells approximates the osmotic equilibrium head calculated from solution concentration of water produced by each well 12 000 and 18 500 mg l respectively other wells penetrating the top and edge of the triassic basin probably penetrate a zone where ion leakage gives rise to less saline water thus these wells are not geopressurized

the relationship between coal petrography and depositional environments from selected coal basins in canada abstract this paper reviews current research in canada relating to the sedimentology of coal bearing sequences and the petrographic character of contained seams from selected intermontane and foreland basin settings the intermontane cumberland and stellarton basins of nova scotia contain westphalian coal bearing strata of different character coal seams that formed in fluvial dominated depositional environments of the springhill coalfield cumberland basin commonly brighten upward and laterally display distinct areal zones a piedmont zone formed by interfingering of mire and distal fan sheetflow deposits an inner mire zone largely devoid of partings and a riverine zone with large scale seam splits about multistorey sandstone bodies maceral based groundwater influence and vegetation indices combined with miospore analyses indicate that the peat precursors of the no 3 seam of the inner mire zone accumulated from a groundwater influenced rheotrophic to mesotrophic forest mire swamp fen both the gelification of lignin derived maceral precursors and the domination of mire vegetation by lycopsid trees reflect this groundwater influence coal that formed from the frequently flooded paleomires of the stellarton basin is generally dull microbanded and mineral rich the location of mires within the basin was largely determined by basin subsidence rates when subsidence rates were high mires developed around the margin of a central basin lake coal seams that formed from these mires e g mcleod seam thicken toward basin margins and grade into sapropelic shale near the basin centre petrographic analyses of the mcleod seam suggest development from limnic to wet forest swamp conditions and a return to a limnic environment at the top of the seam thick coal e g foord seam developed near the basin centre during periods of lower subsidence rates and grades into red beds and paleosols toward the basin margin the foord seam of the basin centre is characterized by low mineral matter contents and a high proportion of degraded vitrinite macerals in the central parts of the seam interpreted to reflect prolonged peat accumulation with very limited clastic input the top and the base of the seam in contrast were subjected to significant clastic input as indicated by microbanding associated with significant amounts of detrital minerals and macerals coal seams of the lower cretaceous gates formation in the western canada basin formed in depositional settings ranging from coastal swamps strandplains to the upper delta plain strandplain coal is characterized by great lateral continuity and substantial thickness whereas coal of the upper delta plain is thin and discontinous the strandplain coal is characterized by variable lithotype sequences oscillatory brightening up dulling up maceral based facies parameters indicate a wide range of mire facies for these lithotype successions open moor forest moor herbaceous and or shrubby marshes and slightly raised mires results from megafossil and phyteral analyses suggest that the coastal plain mires were dominated by taxodiaceous conifers whereas ferns angiosperms and herbaceous lycopods are thought to have occupied the more marshy and or marginal stream lake side environments

flow system controls of the chemical evolution of groundwater abstract isotopic and major ion analyses of 130 fresh and brackish groundwater samples reveal a strikingly consistent pattern of variation over 28 000 km 2 of the western canada sedimentary basin hydrodynamic interpretations based on drill stem tests and piezometric data reveal a pattern of broad regional flow from south to north however there is some evidence to suggest that patterns of groundwater flow have been influenced in the past by wisconsin glaciation all the permeable units appear to be recharged by meteoric water in the south where they outcrop or come close to the surface samples of groundwater collected down dip in each of six major sandstone units are progressively enriched in d 18 o na and cl for example the deepest waters of the artesian milk river aquifer are enriched by up to 70 and 15 with respect to the d and 18 o of the modern recharge waters the pattern of chemical evolution is strongly related to the hydraulic characteristics of individual units the isotopic composition is determined by the extent to which hydraulic conductivity has facilitated meteoric water flushing of connate water thus more permeable units and permeable zones within a unit tend to be isotopically lighter because of a more complete and more rapid invasion of meteoric water interestingly the largest conductivity values are found in some of the deepest units 1500 m consequently water in these deeper units have d and 18 o values which approach that of the recharge the major ion chemistry is controlled both by this process and a complex set of rock water interactions in addition to providing information about the chemical evolution of groundwater this study can begin to quantify the complex pattern of flushing in a large sedimentary basin

bacterial and algal hydrocarbons in sediments from a saline antarctic lake ace lake capillary gas chromatography mass spectrometry c gc ms and iatroscan thin layer chromatography flame ionisation detection tlc fid were used to study hydrocarbon distributions in a sediment core from ace lake a saline meromictic lake in the vestfold hills of antarctica hydrocarbons were abundant in most core sections up to 125 g g dry wt particularly in near surface samples and the distributions were very complex major constituents were identified as phytane 2 6 10 15 19 pentamethyleicosane tetrahydrosqualene a mixture of phytenes cholesta 3 5 diene and fern 7 ene smaller amounts of sterenes and hopenes were also present the predominance of the first 3 acyclic isoprenoids in sediments buried less than 30 cm is consistent with high populations of methanogenic bacteria known to be present phytenes were abundant in all core sections and there was no relationship between their abundance and that of phytane which suggests that they were not derived from methanogenic bacteria phytadienes were minor constituents at all depths studied an unusual feature of some distributions was the high concentrations of fern 7 ene which was the major hydrocarbon in the 20 25 cm core section this alkene was only abundant in sediments which contained high concentrations of methanogen markers suggesting that it may also be indicative of anoxic depositional environments a possible source might be from purple non sulphur bacteria high concentrations of straight chain c29 and c34 alkenes were also found in these sediments but their origin has not been determined major changes in the hydrocarbon distributions with depth indicate that the depositional environment in the lake has altered dramatically since the lake was formed less than 8000 years ago the present condition of permanent anoxic bottom waters probably developed only in the last 1000 years

guidelines for assessing the petroleum potential of coaly source rocks using rock eval pyrolysis abstract coaly source rocks are sufficiently different from marine and lacustrine source rocks in their organic matter characteristics to warrant separate guidelines for their assessment using rock eval pyrolysis the rank threshold for oil generation is indicated by the increase in bi s1 toc at rank sr 9 10 tmax 420 430 c ro 0 55 0 6 and the threshold for oil expulsion is indicated by the peak in qi s1 s2 toc at rank sr 11 12 5 tmax 430 440 c ro 0 65 0 85 the pronounced rank related increase in hi s2 toc prior to oil expulsion renders the use of immature samples inappropriate for source rock characterisation a more realistic indication of the petroleum generative potential and oil expulsion efficiency of coaly source rocks can be gained from samples near the onset of expulsion alternatively effective hi values i e his near the onset of expulsion can be estimated by translating the measured his of immature samples along the maturation pathway defined by the new zealand or other defined coal band coaly source rocks comprise a continuum of coaly lithologies including coals shaly coals and coaly mudstones determination of the total genetic potential of coaly source rock sequences is best made using lithology based samples near the onset of expulsion

relationship between magnetic properties and reddening of tropical soils as indicators of weathering abstract this study evaluates the use of magnetic properties as an indicator of weathering of tropical soils soil samples collected across the tropical belt were analysed for magnetic susceptibility and its frequency dependence frequency dependence is caused by superparamagnetic sp ferrimagnetic nanoparticles which are commonly attributed to neoformation during soil forming processes magnetic properties are compared to the redness rating of soil colour which is related to the hematite content and is an established proxy for soil weathering the investigated samples comprise material of different weathering stages from unweathered and weathered rock to subsoil and strongly weathered topsoil they cover a broad variety of parent materials ultrabasic basic intermediate acid igneous rocks clays and clay slates phyllites and sandstones the results show that soil reddening magnetic susceptibility and in particular frequency dependent susceptibility generally increase with proceeding weathering however there is a lithologic overprint and the parent material has to be taken into consideration soils stemming from acid igneous rocks clays clay slates and phyllites show a positive correlation between reddening and susceptibility or frequency dependent susceptibility rendering these properties suitable for indicating weathering in contrast soils stemming from ultrabasic basic and intermediate igneous rocks and sandstones show no significant correlation the reason is the strong lithogenic overprint of ferrimagnetic minerals including sp particles which commonly occur in these rock types

stratigraphic review of eocene to oligocene successions along the eastern japan sea implication for early opening of the japan sea abstract stratigraphic review of the on land successions exposed on the back arc side of japan and sakhalin combined with supplemental radiometric dating reveals the existence of late eocene or oligocene marine sediments along the eastern coast of the japan sea this finding implies that the origin of the japan sea dates back to the oligocene or earlier time much older than ever supposed the host eocene to oligocene subaerial to shallow water successions distribute immediate west of the volcanic front of that time and contain volcanic rocks the chemistry of which is characteristic of continental rift or volcanic arc they are associated with parallel dike swarms or normal faults and could be infillings of an incipient back arc rift collective evidence suggests that the rift was rapidly subsided and spread during the following early to middle miocene time however a back arc wide unconformity was produced during a short period from the latest oligocene to the earliest miocene and was succeeded by extensive bimodal volcanism with rapid migration of the volcanic front to the fore arc side these short term events could have been induced by upwelling or inflow of hot asthenosphere beneath the arc rift system followed by rapid subsidence and spreading of the japan sea

geochemical appraisal of palaeovegetation and climate oscillation in the late miocene of western bulgaria abstract palaeobotanical methods and geochemical techniques were used to assess plant contribution and palaeoenvironment for the staniantsi basin bulgaria the aim was to connect palaeovegetation change and climate oscillation based on pollen and statistical analysis with organic geochemical proxies for a late miocene lacustrine to paludial sedimentary succession three samples from lignite marl cycles were studied the biomarker assemblage and bulk chemical data indicated that gymnosperms were not important in the palaeomire the presence of des a triterpenoids 17 21 seco triterpenoids hopanes a high content of a d ring monoaromatic hopane and aromatized triterpenoids suggested that photochemical and microbial processes significantly contributed to the alteration of the organic matter om a prolonged period of high water table and severe mechanical destruction promoted microbial activity prior to burial and enhanced decay a geochemical appraisal of short term climate oscillation ca 21 7 kyr was attempted within the limitations of the small number of samples studied the cycles are expressed as lignite marl clay layers combined with cyclic changes in swamp vegetation related to cyclic changes in groundwater level and inundation of the basin in periods of low water level swamp phase lignite accumulation took place preliminary results for selected samples suggest that the oscillation may be reflected in the content of friedelin vs possible degradation products the ratio of a chromatographic peak tentatively assigned as a norfriedel 8 en 10 one to friedelin is proposed as a means of detecting short term environmental cycles where values 1 reflect periods of inundation however time series analysis using densely sampled lignite clay layer oscillations are needed to confirm the value of this biomarker ratio for environmental reconstruction

aliphatic and diterpenoid hydrocarbons and their individual carbon isotope compositions in coals from the liaohe basin china abundant tricyclic diterpanes i e pimarane dehydroabietane and simonellite and tetracyclic diterpanes e g phyllocladane were detected in coal samples from the third member of the shahejie formation lower eogene liaohe basin china gas chromatography isotope ratio mass spectrometry gc irms analyses show that the carbon isotopic composition of terrigenous tricyclic and tetracyclic diterpenoid hydrocarbons are about 4 6 enriched in 13c compared to n alkanes in the same samples in addition the pimaranes and phyllocladane have comparatively narrow stable carbon isotopic compositions among the different samples with a slightly wider range in 13c compositions for the abietanes i e abietane dehydroabietane and simonellite the n alkanes and triterpenoids reflect the 13c compositions of higher plant wax

paleoenvironment of the eocene coal seam in the fushun basin ne china implications from petrography and organic geochemistry abstract the fushun basin in northeast china is a strike slip basin filled with coal bearing eocene sediments the basin fill includes from base to top volcaniclastic rocks a 20 to 145 m thick coal seam lower eocene guchengzi formation and lacustrine oil shale up to 300 m thick jijuntun formation the sub bituminous coal of the guchengzi formation famous for the amber inclusions is exploited in the largest opencast coal and oil shale mine in asia in the present contribution the depositional environment and the thermal history of the guchengzi formation are investigated based on macro and micropetrographic data bulk geochemical parameters biomarker analysis stable isotope geochemistry and vitrinite reflectance measurements according to our interpretation accumulation of the low sulfur coal commenced in a low lying mire near a shallow lake subsequently low ash coal was deposited either in a low lying mire protected from clastic influx or in a raised mire finally high subsidence rates typical for strike slip basins caused the flooding of the mire and terminated peat accumulation pristane phytane ratios suggest a gradual change from oxic to less oxic conditions during the drowning phase of the seam organic rich shales accumulated in the newly formed freshwater lake and resulted in the deposition of the overlying oil shale bearing jijuntun formation the coal is rich in liptinite macerals especially sporinite gymnosperms dominated the paleovegetation of the mire something that is also reflected by the frequent occurrence of resinite and amber and their biomarker composition the coal reached the sub bituminous or even the high volatile bituminous stage despite the limited burial depth simple 1d models suggest that this is a result of high heat flow rather than of deep burial and erosion the hydrogen rich coal is oil prone

algal and bacterial hydrocarbons in particulate matter and interfacial sediment of the cariaco trench particulate matter samples 53 m size fractions and sediment from the sediment water interface were collected in the cariaco trench an anoxic marine basin on the continental shelf of venezuela and analyzed for hydrocarbons concentrations of hydrocarbons were highest 10 20 ng 1 in oxic surface waters 0 150 m and at the top of the anoxic zone 350 600 m and were low 3 4 ng l in the low oxygen zone above the oxic anoxic interface 150 250 m and anoxic bottom waters 600 1150 m branched c25 trienes and tetraenes dominated the hydrocarbon distributions in 53 m particles particle size and depth distributions of the hydrocarbons demonstrate the importance of algal hydrocarbons in surface waters coupled with increased abundances of bacterial hydrocarbons especially in the 53 m particles in the anoxic zone these observations illustrate the importance of oxic anoxic interfaces even in the oceanic water column as zones of intense microbial alteration of organic matter and as sources of some of the organic compounds found in sediments

the miocene coal seams in the soma basin w turkey insights from coal petrography mineralogy and geochemistry abstract the neogene soma basin western turkey hosts three coal seams km2 km3 and kp1 and several altered tuff layers within the miocene sequences this study focuses on the evaluation of coal petrography mineralogical and elemental compositions as well as the rock eval pyrolysis of the three coal seams from eynez isiklar and denis sectors and to identify the mineralogy of altered tuff layers within km2 and kp1 seams the routine coal quality analyses show that coal samples from the km2 seam are characterized by lower ash yields and total s contents and higher gross calorific values than km3 and kp1 seams the mineralogical composition of the bulk coal samples varies between all three seams the statistical treatment implies that major elements in bulk coal samples such as al fe k mg and na and the vast majority of minor and trace elements have inorganic affinity the trace element contents and elemental enrichments in the coal samples are generally changeable from seam to seam which could be related to differences in ash yield and mineralogy altered tuff layers or tonsteins were identified in km2 and kp1 seams the tonsteins are clay rich and certain trace elements e g as and zr are enriched in the coal layers beneath the tuff layers in the km2 seam this might be related to penetration of leached pore water into these layers and precipitation of epigenetic minerals the coal petrography composition and the coal facies diagrams show that the precursor peat of the km2 seam was accumulating under telmatic mesotrophic anoxic conditions whereas the water level was high and stable the relatively low ash yields and thicker coal beds suggest a lower clastic input from the basin margins and water table fluctuations resulted in calcareous intercalations in the km3 and kp1 seams these imply the development of limno telmatic conditions whereas fluvial activity affected during peat accumulation of both seams considering the maceral composition along with the coal thickness coal seams in the soma basin might display oil generation potential however the pyrolysis analysis shows that the studied coal seams are mainly gas prone and only certain coal beds have mixed hydrocarbon generation capacity all data presented in this study indicates that lithological features differences in coal qualities and elemental contents in the soma basin were mainly controlled by changes in the depositional conditions and the detrital input during miocene

the displacement of connate water from aquifers a mathematical model is developed for the mixing of meteoric and original formation waters in homogeneous aquifers the theoretical analysis indicates that geologic formations that have had a few to a few tens of pore volumes of meteoric water pass through them may be at steady state with respect to further displacement of their contained fluids depending on constraints in the recharge area the steady state may vary from near meteoric water throughout the whole formation to a spatial variation in concentration ranging from meteoric water in the recharge areas to highly concentrated water at the discharge ends of the system the former condition is attained when the recharge area incorporates the total depth and breadth of the formation where this condition is not satisfied the concentrations that evolve are controlled by the original concentration of the formation water the composition of recharging meteoric water the dispersion parameters and the size of the recharge area in comparison to the total breadth of the formation as measured along its strike for heterogeneous formations the concentration patterns that evolve seem to depend further on contrasts in hydraulic conductivity this is demonstrated in the milk river sandstone which is characterized by several extensive zones of dilute water within narrow high conductivity pathways and marked increases in concentration in adjacent lower permeability rock in parts of the aquifer where higher permeability pathways appear to be absent the isochlores form a broad linear band with a marked increase in concentration in the flow direction

experimental support for a predictive osmotic model of clay membranes osmosis has been cited as a mechanism for explaining anomalously high fluid pressures in the subsurface clays and shales act as membranes and osmotic flux across these units may result in pressures sufficiently high to explain these anomalies the theoretical osmotic pressures as calculated solely from solution properties can be quite large however it is not yet resolved whether these geologic membranes are sufficiently ideal to generate such pressures

hyperfiltration of sodium chloride through kaolinite membranes under relatively low heads implications for groundwater assessment abstract three relatively low head hyperfiltration experiments were conducted to investigate clay membrane behavior at lower hydraulic heads dilute cl solutions 187 and 336 mg l were forced through thin layers of kaolinite 0 67 1 62 mm under heads ranging between 1 45 and 1 89 m at the end of each experiment there was a cl concentration increase 15 29 within the cell the concentration increase is attributable to solute sieving by the kaolinite calculated final concentration increases at the membrane face ranged between 1 51 and 1 65 times the initial concentration and the calculated values of the reflection coefficient ranged between 0 35 and 0 40 these experiments show that clays are capable of significant hyperfiltration effects at lower pressure heads more typical of natural aquifers consequently hyperfiltration effects may need to be considered in a broad spectrum of shallow subsurface processes in which these effects have been regarded as inconsequential particularly in perched aquifers

fernenes and other triterpenoid hydrocarbons in dicroidium bearing triassic mudstones and coals from south australia tandem sector mass spectrometry of the aliphatic hydrocarbon fraction of selected late triassic sub bituminous coals mudstones and plant fossils from the leigh creek coalfield telford basin south australia has revealed three pseudohomologous series of triterpenoid hydrocarbons two of these series have been identified as fern 8 enes c29 c31 and fern 9 11 enes c29 c30 the third series c29 c31 comprises saturated hydrocarbons tentatively identified as fernanes these hydrocar bons appear to be related to pteridosperms seed ferns of the genus dicroidium fronds of which are preserved throughout the sedimentary sequence 1998 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

methyl compound use and slow growth characterize microbial life in 2 km deep subseafloor coal and shale beds the past decade of scientific ocean drilling has revealed seemingly ubiquitous slow growing microbial life within a range of deep biosphere habitats integrated ocean drilling program expedition 337 expanded these studies by successfully coring miocene aged coal beds 2 km below the seafloor hypothesized to be hot spots for microbial life to characterize the activity of coal associated microorganisms from this site a series of stable isotope probing sip experiments were conducted using intact pieces of coal and overlying shale incubated at in situ temperatures 45 c the 30 month sip incubations were amended with deuterated water as a passive tracer for growth and different combinations of 13 c or 15 n labeled methanol methylamine and ammonium added at low micromolar concentrations to investigate methylotrophy in the deep subseafloor biosphere although the cell densities were low 50 2 000 cells per cubic centimeter bulk geochemical measurements and single cell targeted nanometer scale secondary ion mass spectrometry demonstrated active metabolism of methylated substrates by the thermally adapted microbial assemblage with differing substrate utilization profiles between coal and shale incubations the conversion of labeled methylamine and methanol was predominantly through heterotrophic processes with only minor stimulation of methanogenesis these findings were consistent with in situ and incubation 16s rrna gene surveys microbial growth estimates in the incubations ranged from several months to over 100 y representing some of the slowest direct measurements of environmental microbial biosynthesis rates collectively these data highlight a small but viable deep coal bed biosphere characterized by extremely slow growing heterotrophs that can utilize a diverse range of carbon and nitrogen substrates

new insights into the origin of perylene in geological samples abstract the origin of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pah perylene in sediments and petroleum has been a matter of continued debate reported to occur in phanerozoic organic matter om fossil crinoids and tropical termite mounds its mechanism of formation remains unclear while a combustion source can be excluded structural similarities to perylene quinone like components present in e g fungi plants crinoids and insects potentially suggest a product precursor relationship here we report perylene concentrations 13c 12c and d h ratios from a holocene sediment profile from the qingpu trench yangtze delta region china perylene concentrations differ from those of pyrogenic pahs and rise to prominence in a stratigraphic interval that was dominated by woody vegetation as determined by palynology including fungal spores in this zone perylene concentrations exhibit an inverse relationship to the lignin marker guaiacol d h ratios between 284 and 317 similar to the methoxy groups in lignin as well as co variation with spores from wood degrading fungi 13c 12c of perylene differs from that of land plant wax alkanes and falls in the fractionation range expected for saprophytic fungi that utilise lignin which is isotopically lighter than cellulose and whole wood during progressive lignin degradation the relative carbon isotopic ratio of the perylene decreases we therefore hypothesise a relationship of perylene to the activity of wood degrading fungi to support our hypothesis we analysed a wide range of phanerozoic sediments and oils and found perylene to generally be present in subordinate amounts before the evolutionary rise of vascular plants and to be generally absent from marine sourced oils few exceptions being attributed perhaps to a contribution of marine and or terrestrial derived fungi anoxia especially under marine conditions and or contamination of core material by fungi a series of low molecular weight aromatic quinones bearing the perylene backbone were detected in devonian and cretaceous sediments potentially representing precursor components to perylene

cyclic terpenoids of contemporary resinous plant detritus and of fossil woods ambers and coals abstract cyclic terpenoids present in the solvent extractable material of fossil woods ambers and brown coals have been analyzed the sample series chosen consisted of wood remains preserved in holocene to jurassic sediments and a set of of ambers from the philippines copalite israel canada and dominican republic the brown coals selected were from the fortuna garsdorf mine and miocene formations on fiji the fossil wood extracts contained dominant diterpenoid or sesquiterpenoid skeletons and aromatized species were present at high concentrations with a major amount of two ring aromatic compounds tricyclic diterpenoids were the predominant compounds in the ambers aromatized derivatives were the major components consisting of one or two aromatic ring species with the abietane and occasionally pimarane skeletons the saturated structures were comprised primarily of the abietane and pimarane skeletons having from three to five carbon c1 c2 etc substituents kaurane and phyllocladane isomers were present in only minor amounts bicyclic sesquiterpenoids as saturated and partial or fully aromatized forms were also common in these samples but only traces of sesterterpenoids and triterpenoid derivatives were found the brown coal extracts were composed of major amounts of one and two ring aromatized terpenoids with a greater proportion of triterpenoid derivatives than in the case of the woods and ambers this was especially noticeable for the german coal where the triterpenoids were predominant open c ring aromatized structures were also present in this coal steroid compounds were not detectable but some hopanes were found as minor components in the german brown coal an overview of the skeletal structure classes identified in each sample as well as the general mass spectrometric characteristics of the unknown compounds are included in the present paper it can be concluded from these structural distributions that aromatization is the main process for the transformation of terrestrial cyclic terpenoids during diagenesis constituting a general pathway for all terpenoids

occurrence of polycadinene in fossil and recent resins abstract dammars produced by dipterocarpaceae growing in southeast asia are partly composed of a macromolecule with a polycadinene structure this polymer is the precursor of many specific compounds encountered in crude oils and sediment extracts from south asia until recently there was no evidence for a more widespread geographical occurrence of this resinous polymer using different pyrolysis methods it is shown that the polymers present in a resinite from utah usa and in resins contained in resin canals of eocene fossil fruits from germany and england are also polycadinenes the fossil fruits were undoubtedly produced by ancient representatives of mastixioid cornaceae a group of plants which was widespread in the tertiary of europe and north america and which is not related to dipterocarpaceae these findings extend the known occurrence and origin of the sesquiterpenoid type resin polymer it is to be expected that catagenetic products of these resin polymers should be present in oils coals and sediment extracts from areas outside southeast asia

differences in groundwater and chloride residence times in saline groundwater the barwon river catchment of southeast australia abstract the residence times of groundwater and chloride and the processes contributing to the development of saline total dissolved solids tds up to 45 379 mg l groundwater within the barwon river catchment of southeast australia were investigated using major ion stable isotope 18 o 2 h and 13 c and radioactive isotope 3 h 14 c 36 cl geochemistry the elevated groundwater salinity in the region is primarily due to evapotranspiration and recycling of solutes in saline lakes with minor contributions from weathering of halite silicate and calcite minerals groundwater residence times estimated from 14 c vary from modern to 20 ka for groundwater with lower 14 c activities the estimated residence times vary significantly depending on the assumed flow model and the 14 c activity of recharge chloride residence times downgradient of lake murdeduke a saline through flow lake in the centre of the catchment are greater than the corresponding groundwater residence times due to the recycling of cl within the lake precise estimates of chloride residence time could not be determined using 36 cl due to r 36 cl in precipitation being lower than that of groundwater this is most likely due to r 36 cl values in rainfall having been higher in the past than they are at present due to climate variability 18 o 2 h and 13 c values also suggest that the region has experienced increasingly more evaporative conditions with time the results of this study demonstrate that while cl is a useful tracer of hydrological processes it must be applied carefully in arid and semi arid regions of the world in particular recharge rates calculated using chloride mass balance may be underestimated where recycling of cl has occurred

molecular and isotopic biogeochemistry of the miocene clarkia formation hydrocarbons and alcohols the miocene lacustrine deposit at clarkia northern idaho u s a is well known for its rich and exceptionally well preserved higher plant leaf fossils in the present study the distributions abundance and isotopic compositions of aliphatic hydrocarbons and alcohols isolated from two sediment samples and from two associated fossils magnolia latahensis and platanus dissecta are investigated the general similarity of these characteristics in the sediments suggests a relatively uniform depositional environment and consistent terrestrial input the sediment hydrocarbons are comprised mainly of compounds derived from higher plants and bacteria whereas the alcohols reflect contributions from both higher plants and algae a notable feature of the higher plant derived terpenoid hydrocarbons is the prevalence of des a triterpenes largely in the absence of their pentacyclic precursors indicating the dominance of a ring degradation for these pentacyclic triterpenoids the des a triterpenes include several novel compounds namely 19 h and 19 h 28 nor des a lup 17 ene and des a oleana 9 13 18 diene the sediment samples contain high abundances of c24 c32 long chain alkanediols consisting of a series of diols 1 diols 1 15 diols and an unusual series of 1 3 diols both fossil leaves show clear differences in their compound distributions and concentrations from the associated sediments which suggests that they retain a composition distinct from the sediment groundmass the 13c values of c25 c33 n alkanes and c24 c32 n alcohols in sediments and fossils are consistent with an origin from terrestrial c3 higher plants algal lipids in the two sediments are represented by dinostanol 24 6 and 25 9 inherited from dinoflagellates and long chain 1 15 alkanediols 26 4 to 29 7 derived from microalgae the long chain 1 and 1 3 alkanediols are more enriched in 13c 21 8 to 26 4 suggesting an origin from sources other than higher plants probably aquatic photoautotrophic organisms the 13c depletion of some hopanoids 35 9 to 61 0 attests to contributions from methanotrophic bacteria and suggests an active methane cycle at the time of deposition

coal deposition in the noric depression eastern alps raised and low lying mires in miocene pull apart basins abstract pull apart basins often form during the late stage of continental collision provided appropriate climatic conditions these basins may contain thick coal seams two such examples are the leoben and fohnsdorf basins in austria which formed in miocene times during the post collisional stage of the alpine orogene both basins contain more than 10 m of sub bituminous coal despite similar ages tectonic settings and similar stratigraphic position of the seams within the sedimentary sequence the properties of the coals differ significantly the leoben coal is quite clean whereas fohnsdorf coal is rich in ash and sulfur petrographical and geochemical methods were applied to reconstruct the environmental factors that controlled coal properties in these basins coal formation in the leoben basin commenced in an eutrophic low lying mire this was followed by deposition of the main body of coal which formed in an ombrotrophic raised mire coal deposition was only shortly interrupted by deposition of volcanic ashes due to an acid paleo environment the volcanic material within the raised mire was altered to kaolinite thick vitrain bands representing large trees are found in the lower part of the seam only siderite is the main inorganic constituent in the main coal body lakes within the raised mire were present during late stages of peat accumulation and were filled with sapropelic coal the high ash yields of this facies are due to abundant siliceous sponges siliceous crusts and tuffogenic minerals finally high subsidence rates caused the flooding of the raised mire and sapropelic shales were deposited in the newly formed lake the iron which formed siderite in the raised mire and biogenic and abiogenic silica present in the lakes within the raised mire are derived from volcanic ashes the high ash fohnsdorf coal was formed in a low lying mire close to a brackish lake the seam geometry is controlled by the progradation of a fluvio deltaic system into the brackish lake and its subsequent drowning the roof of the seam is formed by coquinoidal limestones and sapropelic shales the brackish influence reduced the acidity of the mire which resulted in the transformation of volcanic glass into montmorillonite the low acidity also promoted high bacterial activity which together with the high sulfate content of brackish waters explains the high sulfur and pyrite content of the coal its high content of biogenic methane is probably another effect of bacterial activity low ash low sulfur coal is restricted to thin layers these might represent local raised mires which formed after the withdrawal of a fluvial system

lithotype maceral composition and variation as correlated with paleo wetland environments gates formation northeastern british columbia canada abstract lithotype samples collected from mid albian gates formation coal seams in northeastern british columbia were analysed in order to gain a better understanding of coal facies variation compositional boundaries between lithotypes are gradational from bright to dull coals there is a progressive decrease in vitrinite and increase in inertinite liptinite is negligible

factors controlling groundwater quality in eastern united arab emirates a chemical and isotopic approach abstract chlorine 36 along with oxygen and hydrogen isotopes and selected major ions were used to investigate the factors controlling groundwater quality in the eastern part of the united arab emirates two main aquifers occupy the study area the eastern gravel plain aquifer that occurs near the coastal area and the inland ophiolite aquifer previous studies suggest that groundwater particularly in the eastern gravel plain aquifer is affected by seawater intrusion and evaporation samples of groundwater from the eastern gravel plain aquifer cl 1000 mg l have r 36 cl values in the range of 13 3 17 4 10 15 while those from the ophiolite aquifer cl 36 cl values in the range of 20 118 10 15 these values indicate the presence of bomb produced 36 cl and are consistent with recent post 1950 recharge of most of the samples d 18 o relationship plots on a typical evaporation line which suggests potential evaporation of the recharging waters prior to infiltration the r 36 cl values of the coastally bound eastern gravel plain aquifer are lower than the ophiolite aquifer which suggests an additional input of chloride to this aquifer moreover in most cases the chloride concentration is not balanced by the concentrations of other cations such as sodium potassium calcium or magnesium seawater intrusion is thus ruled out measurements of bromide concentrations support the contention that organically bound cl is being released into this environment agricultural practices which are extensive in this region are a possible source also sodium and silica concentrations provide evidence for the release of these elements by the weathering of host rocks

chlorine 36 dating of very old groundwater 1 the great artesian basin australia chlorine 36 has many advantages as a dating tool for very old groundwater these advantages include a suitable half life 3 01 x 10 sup 5 years simple geochemistry conservative behavior in groundwater and a general absence of subsurface sources at levels comparable to the atmospheric input recent advances in tandem accelerator mass spectrometry have permitted the analysis of sup 36 cl at low abundance expected following residence in the subsurface for 10 sup 6 years or more in order to test the suitability of sup 36 cl for dating very old groundwater the sup 36 cl cl ratios of 26 groundwater samples from the great artesian basin of australia have been measured groundwater ages calculated from the sup 36 cl data compare favorably with ages computed independently from hydrodynamic simulations

variability in coal facies as reflected by organic petrological and geochemical data in cenozoic coal beds offshore shimokita japan iodp exp 337 abstract this study reports on cenozoic coal seams recovered at integrated ocean drilling program iodp site c0020 during expedition 337 iodp site c0020 is located in a forearc basin formed by the subduction of the pacific plate off shimokita peninsula japan hole c0020a penetrated 14 coal layers between 1825 and 2466 mbsf eleven of them were investigated within the frame of this paper investigated seams show a slight maturity increase with depth from lignite to sub bituminous coal in order to detect temporal changes in maceral and molecular composition and to relate them to changes in vegetation and depositional environment macro and micropetrographic data bulk geochemical parameters biomarker analysis stable isotope geochemistry and vitrinite reflectance measurements were performed results were also compared with palynological data obtained from 9 coal samples elevated sulfur contents and high ash yields occur in the upper seams cores 14r to 18r whereas low sulfur contents and varying ash yields were determined for the lower coal seams 24r to 30r the maceral composition and biomarker ratios of the uppermost seams argue for coal formation in a paralic environment and brackish alkaline water conditions in contrast lignite samples from the lower part of unit iii point to a limnic fluviatile deposition conifers contributed significantly to peat formation in the uppermost seams from cores 15r to 22r and in the lowermost lignite seam in all other samples angiosperms are considered as the major peat forming plants the pollen and spore floras indicate rich angiosperm vegetation however significant contributions from pinaceae and taxodiaceae are evident for all coals sporophytes have no dominant influence on the coal flora microbial activity in the peat is suggested for instance by higher concentrations of hop 17 21 ene with increasing contents of hopanes or by low 13 c values of hop 17 21 ene the revealed changes in the environment during coal deposition highlight the importance of combined organic petrography organic geochemistry and palynology to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental conditions

aromatic hydrocarbons in the paraiba valley oil shale abstract aromatic hydrocarbon fractions extracted from different depths of a core 13 8 47 3 m deep of the paraiba valley oil shale were analysed by computerized high resolution gas chromatography mass spectrometry triterpenes derived from precursors oxygenated at position 3 such as tetracyclic ring a degraded and pentacyclic aromatic ursane oleanane and lupane derivatives were amongst the most common components indicating an important input from higher plants to the sediment this interpretation is supported by the occurrence of sesquiterpenoids cadalene calamenene in the same sediment samples on the other hand hopanoids notably the tetraaromatic derivative were also detected attesting to a significant bacterial contribution to the sedimentary biomass in contrast with the abundance of aromatic structures related to oleanane ursane and hopane no skeletons traceable to steroidal precursors could be confirmed suggesting a small algal input this study also revealed the presence of two new aromatic biomarkers one of them is a c24 monoaromatic tetracycle apparently derived via ring a degradation from a triterpenoid with the fernene skeleton the other compound is a ring a monoaromatic pentacycle with what appears to be a hopanoid structure

chlorine 36 dating of very old groundwater 2 milk river aquifer alberta canada the milk river aquifer in southern alberta canada consists of sandstone interbedded between thick shale units the groundwater is confined and discharges by both upward and downward leakage through the shales the concentration of cl increases by about 2 orders of magnitude downgradient through the aquifer this cl increase complicates 36cl dating of the system climatic changes flushing of connate water introduction of cl from older water below the aquifer and ion filtration have been proposed as possible explanations for the increase the 36cl data show a consistent decrease of the 36cl cl ratio downgradient but an increase in the 36cl concentration downgradient in certain parts of the aquifer dates calculated from the 36cl cl ratio show a reasonable distribution in light of the hydraulic controls on the system whereas dates calculated from the 36cl concentration give negative ages this suggests that ion filtration is responsible for the cl increase and that the 36cl cl dates are to be preferred we estimate water ages to be more than 2 m y near the distal end of the aquifer

perylene as an indicator of conifer fossil wood degradation by wood degrading fungi the occurrence of perylene in middle jurassic fossil wood and miocene xylites from poland is described along with its correlation with unsubstituted polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons pahs as well as cellulose content both middle jurassic and miocene wood remnants were of relatively low maturity ca 0 2 0 3 vitrinite reflectance rr had excellent preservation of biomarkers and biomolecules and in the case of the middle jurassic fossil wood samples generally good preservation of anatomical structures due to early diagenetic mineralisation the results from 42 middle jurassic and 8 miocene most taxonomically defined fossil wood fragments demonstrated a negative correlation between the concentration of perylene and those of generally typical conifer biomarkers e g cadalene dehydroabietane simonellite and retene in addition good correlation r2 0 81 was observed between the ratio of perylene to the above conifer biomarkers and the ratio of pahs phenanthrene and fluoranthene and pyrene to the conifer biomarkers this implies that the high concentration of perylene in fossil wood indicate its extensive degradation during decay transport and early diagenesis we defined a conifer wood degradation index as cwdi perylene perylene cadalene retene simonellite dehydroabietane cwdi perylene perylene cadalene retene simonellite dehydroabietane and observed a wide range of values 0 001 for less degraded wood to 0 95 for highly degraded samples anatomical wood preservation was associated with cwdi values in most of the samples characterised by poorly preserved anatomy high cwdi values were observed while anatomically well preserved samples generally had lower cwdi values we determined similar 13c values for perylene from the fossil wood samples 26 4 to 27 8 whereas the values for the conifer biomarkers were slightly higher and varied from 25 6 to 26 6 in contrast pyrene was depleted in 13c 27 5 to 28 2 the carbon isotope values of perylene are consistent with an origin from wood degrading fungi

chlorine isotopes as tracers of solute origin and age of groundwaters from the eastern desert of egypt abstract chlorine 36 abundances and stable chlorine isotope ratios 37 cl 35 cl were analyzed to decipher sources of chloride and to estimate subsurface residence times of groundwaters from the nubian sandstone aquifer system nsas alluvial aquifers and fractured basement aquifers in the eastern desert of egypt chlorine 36 isotopic abundances 36 cl cl ranged from 5 10 15 to 343 10 15 the range in 37 cl values was 0 61 to 0 90 groundwater solute compositions were dominated by na ca cl and so 4 with total dissolved solids ranging from 445 to 13 700 mg l chemical and isotopic data indicate that dry fallout of marine aerosols and evaporated vadose zone residues from precipitation that recharged the aquifers may have been the main sources of groundwater solutes apparent groundwater 36 cl model ages range from 0 40 to 1300 300 180 kyr groundwater from the fractured basement aquifers in the southwestern part of the study area had the youngest apparent ages while that from deep wells tapping the nubian aquifer had the oldest apparent ages shallow alluvial aquifers having anomalously old apparent 36 cl model ages indicate mixing of old nubian aquifer water with modern recharge in alluvial aquifers stable isotope ratios of hydrogen and oxygen support this inferred mixing relationship and allowed quantitative estimation of old young water mixing fractions

biogeochemistry of the miocene lacustrine deposit at clarkia northern idaho u s a abstract the lipid preservation observed in the sediments from clarkia reflects an extremely immature thermal history many biomarkers have still retained functionality even after 17 20 million years the soluble components are predominantly higher plant and algal derived lipids and the original sources for these compounds are still preserved in the sediment thus biogeochemical data are in agreement with the associated palaeontological evidence chemical changes noted in the lipids preserved in these sediments are similar to those observed in modern fresh water mesotropic or eutrophic lacustrine sediments therefore it can be inferred that the processes that operate in modern lacustrine sediments are similar to those that took place within the sediments at clarkia 17 20 million years ago

relations of petrographical and geochemical parameters in the middle miocene lavanttal lignite austria abstract samples from two lignite seams lower seam upper seam of the lavanttal basin austria and additional xylite were investigated for variations in maceral composition petrography based facies indicators bulk geochemical parameters and molecular composition of hydrocarbons both seams originated in a topogenous mire and evolved within a transgressive setting the final drowning of the mire is indicated by sapropelic shales whereas the sapropelic shale overlying the lower seam was deposited in a freshwater lake the sapropelic shale above the upper seam represents a brackish lake numerous relationships are found between petrography based facies indicators and the geochemical composition of organic matter the contents of macerals of the liptinite group are positively correlated with soluble organic matter som yields and hydrogen index hi consistent with maceral composition and high hi values enhanced proportions of short chain n alkanes which are predominantly found in algae and microorganisms are obtained from samples of the sapropelic shales the final drowning of the mire is reflected by decreasing pristane phytane ratios due to the rise in ground water table and the establishment of anaerobic conditions as well as by decreasing ratios of diasterenes sterenes indicating increasing ph values in the mire the degree of gelification of plant tissue gelification index is governed by the microbial activity in the mire as indicated by the hopanes concentration the differences in floral assemblage during the formation of the lavanttal lignite seams are reflected by major differences in tissue preservation preservation of plant tissue tpi in the lavanttal lignite is obviously controlled by the presence absence of decay resistant gymnosperms in the peat forming vegetation and additionally influenced by the relative contribution of wood to coal formation the results provide evidence that valuable information for coal facies characterization could be obtained by petrography based and geochemical facies indicators an influence of the floral assemblage gymnosperms angiosperms ratio and of the contribution of algal biomass on carbon isotopic composition of the organic matter 13c 24 2 to 28 6 is proposed carbon cycling during biogeochemical decomposition of plant tissue by bacteria is suggested to affect the 13c values of the coal the chemotaxonomical classification of the xylites as gymnosperm remnants based on the molecular composition of terpenoid biomarkers is corroborated by the carbon isotopic composition of the xylites mean 13c 24 1 and the extracted cellulose mean 13c 20 2 the higher isotopic difference of about 3 9 between cellulose and total organic carbon of the xylites compared to the difference between cellulose and wood found in modern trees is explained by the smaller effect of decomposition on 13c of cellulose

comparative study of serbian miocene coals insights from biomarker composition abstract the origin of the organic matter om and the characteristics of the paleoenvironment of serbian brown coals covering a time span from the lower to the upper miocene were evaluated and compared based on comprehensive petrological and biomarker analyses investigated coals are typical humic coals peat forming vegetation is characterized by abundant decay resistant gymnosperm coniferous plants followed by variable amount of angiosperms coal forming plants belonged to the gymnosperm families taxodiaceae podocarpaceae cupressaceae araucariaceae phyllocladaceae and pinaceae peatification proceeded in fresh water environment under variable eh settings from anoxic to slightly oxic condition upper miocene lignites were formed in neutral to slightly acidic environment whereas lower and middle miocene coals were deposited under neutral to slightly alkaline and more reductive conditions which is the result of calcium rich surface waters derived from the surrounding jurassic to cretaceous calcareous country rock and higher water column level diagenetic changes of the om were governed by bacterial activity rather than thermal alteration biomarker pattern does not significantly differ in serbian coals of different ages the main differences between upper middle and lower miocene coals are expressed by higher gelification index gi proxy ratio p aq n c 23 n c 27 n c 31 and pimarane 16 h phyllocladane ratio as well as lower relative abundance of c 31 r hopane of the latter one om of lower miocene coals is more mature corresponding to immature early mature stage huminite vitrinite reflectance 0 45 whereas om of upper miocene lignites is in immature diagenetic phase huminite reflectance 0 3 consequently higher gelification of lower miocene coals is probably an effect of higher rank however high humidity wet climate and low acidity within the mire could not be excluded a good correlation between biomarker parameters and paleoclimate data is observed indicating that biomarker patterns represent a valuable tool that reflect even slight paleoclimate changes in serbia during miocene

spatial and temporal variability in vegetation and coal facies as reflected by organic petrological and geochemical data in the middle miocene cayirhan coal field turkey abstract coal channel samples of middle miocene age are collected from the first tv and second tb seams from underground mines and from exploration boreholes within the cayirhan coal field in the beypazari basin turkey they are investigated in order to detect spatial and temporal changes in maceral and molecular composition of coal and to relate them to changes in vegetation and depositional environment the mean random reflectance values of ulminite 0 40 rr indicate a lignite to subbituminous c coal in rank maceral composition and biomarker ratios of the samples from both seams at the cayirhan deposit argue for coal formation in a limno telmatic environment under dysoxic to anoxic conditions alkaline surface waters of changing ph values and a high and unstable water level at the palaeomire are evidenced by moderate to high gelification index gi and ground water influence gwi values as well as high sulphur contents variations in tissue preservation index tpi and vegetation index vi values point to minor variations in the palaeovegetation during peat formation herbaceous plants dominated in both tb and tv palaeomires low tpi and vi values whereas in the surroundings arboreal vegetation were predominant the decreasing trends in pristane phytane ratios and carbon preference index cpi values towards the ne are suggested to reflect oxygen deficient conditions during peat formation due to a higher ground water level in this part of the basin the occurrence of c 29 diasterenes in low abundances provides evidence for periods of lower ph in the mire the borehole samples from the ne show slightly enhanced contributions of n alkanes from algal and microbial sources the terpenoid hydrocarbons present in the lignite argue for a major contribution of angiosperms to peat formation and slightly enhanced proportions of gymnosperms in the tv palaeomire in the ne based on the high concentrations of lupane type triterpenoids in the coal seams from the underground mine a higher density of betulaceae in the arboreal vegetation in the sw is indicated

simple kinetic models of petroleum formation part iii modelling an open system abstract the movement of petroleum from organic rich source beds to potential carrier beds is the net result of two processes expulsion the release of generated petroleum from kerogen within the source bed and primary migration flow of a petroleum phase through the inorganic void networks of the source bed and all other intervening fine grained rocks expulsion is by far the more important process within the source bed orgas a simple zero dimensional model of the source rock as an open system explicitly models expulsion concurrent with oil and gas generation and oi lgas cracking as a storage threshold problem oil and gas are retained adsorbed absorbed within kerogen until their concentrations exceed the respective sorptive capacity of the residual organic carbon 0 1 and 0 02 g g ck 1 the initial hydrogen index hl 0 controls the important balance between potential sorbate petroleum and sorbant residual carbon using simple geochemical measurements the initial organic carbon is divided into initial oil inert kerogen and oil and gas generative reactive kerogen components reactive kerogens are assigned to one of five global kinetic organofacies with pre determined kinetic parameter sets governing separately rates of oil and gas generation kinetic parameters governing the rates of oil cracking within the source rock are predicted from hl 0 the two most important determinants of source rock behaviour are organofacies and hl 0 at a reference constant heating rate of 2 c ma 1 the projected oil expulsion threshold for typical organofacies members increases in the order a de 100 110 120 135 c f typically expels no oil an order of magnitude increase decrease in heating rate increases decreases these thresholds by ca 15 c typical cumulative gas mass fractions in their ultimate expulsion products are a f 0 25 0 3 0 25 0 65 and 1 0 g g 1 a value of 200 mg hc g c 1 is an approximate minimum hl 0 prerequisite for oil expulsion irrespective of absolute petroleum potential p 0 as a family coals vary dramatically in their expulsion behaviour as their hl 0 ranges both above and velow this value primary migration is efficient for expulsive source rocks movement within the source bed is limited only at low p 0 a source rocks total genetic potential p 0 thickness becomes important during migration outside the source bed it potentially restricts the primary migration distance and the excess of petroleum available for secondary migration and entrapment we evaluate primary migration approximately using a small migration loss factor no more than about 10 saturation of porosity or 1 mg g 1 coupled with an understanding of fluid potential gradients which determine migration direction within the stratigraphic architecture ultimately kerogen degradation and oil to gas cracking in the source rock are the rate limiting processes in petroleum accumulation

aliphatic and aromatic triterpenoid hydrocarbons in a tertiary angiospermous lignite abstract the hydrocarbon biomarker assemlage of a liptinite rich early tertiary angiospermous lignite has been characterized the biomarker fistribution for the lignite confirms the low maturity and previous paleobotanic interpretations the aliphatic hydrocarbon fraction consists predominantly of n alkanes showing a strong odd carbon predominance and numerous de a triterpenoids and triterpenoids derived from higher plants bacterially derived triterpenoids were represented primarily by homohopanes and hopenes the aromatic hydrocarbon fraction contains a series of mono di and triaromatic de a triterpenoids and mono tri and tetraaromatic triterpenoids derived from higher plants the concentration and abundance of monoaromatic triterpenoids containing one to three additonal degress of unsaturation have not seen previously observed in a single deposit as such a diagenetic scheme for angiosperm derived triterpenoids is presented which confirms and extends previous hypothesis

neogene and early pleistocene diatom biostratigraphy and age synthesis of site c9001 c0020 northwest pacific abstract integrated ocean drilling program iodp expedition 337 drilled a new core in 2012 that extended the coring depth of hole c9001d at site c9001 below the 647 meters below seafloor mbsf that was penetrated in 2006 during the chikyu shakedown cruise ck06 06 drilling operations at site c0020 formerly site c9001 located 80 km off the shimokita peninsula of northeastern honshu japan penetrated hole c0020a to a total depth of 2466 mbsf iodp exp 337 sought to explore a deep hydrocarbon system and coalbeds that prior to drilling were estimated to be of eocene age combined shipboard diatom and palynological analyses however revealed unexpectedly thick sections of pliestocene and miocene sediments an approximately 12 15 million year hiatus at 1086 5 mud depth below sea floor m msf and coalbeds younger than originally predicted new biostratigraphic results from hole c0020a indicate the target coalbed is early miocene the age of the youngest sediments obtained in hole c0020a is revised from late pliocene to early pleistocene and the basal age of hole c9001c is confirmed as early pleistocene the age of the deepest sediments obtained at site c0020 is late oligocene early miocene all new data are integrated with the overlying interval obtained from holes c9001c and c9001d to produce a composite chronostratigraphic framework for site c0020

application of isotopic methods to dating of very old groundwaters milk river aquifer alberta canada the aim of this joint project was to evaluate the usefulness of available geochemical and isotope techniques for dating very old groundwater this paper represents a synthesis of an iaea sponsored study for which purpose the milk river aquifer groundwaters were sampled from 16 wells during 1985 and subsequent years for the following measurements 2h 3h 13c 18o 14c 39ar 81kr 85kr noble gases including222rn 36cl 129i and u isotopes the milk river aquifer was selected for this study because several preceding investigations had established that this groundwater system contains waters whose ages range from recent to 1ma the present study has established that the milk river aquifer system is very complex both in terms of groundwater origin and in terms of the evolution of its chemical and isotopic contents however this apparent complexity proved to be an interesting challenge with respect to the use of different and complementary approaches to interpretation of the geochemical and isotope data in terms of groundwater residence time thus the groundwater ages based on the hydrodynamic model should be considered as a lower limit of the average groundwater age in the milk river aquifer 0 25ma while those based on the36cl cl data uncorrected for any dilution by dead cl should be considered as an upper limit 2ma the milk river aquifer international project is an excellent illustration of the variety of insight and increased confidence possible in flow system analysis when multiple independent dating methods are combined with detailed hydrogeological studies the conclusion of the present study is that the potential for dating of very old groundwaters by a variety of isotope techniques is very high provided a combination of methods is applied never a simple method by itself

biomarker geochemistry of a foreland basin the oligocene menilite formation in the flysch carpathians of southeast poland black shales of the menilite formation the source rock for oils in the carpathian overthrust belt display a large variability in their bulk and molecular geochemical parameters biomarker and stable carbon isotope analyses indicate a variable contribution from different algae particularly dinoflagellates and diatoms and cyanobacteria this is reflected by specific predominantly sulfurised biomarkers e g c35 homohopanoids c25 highly branched isoprenoids and marine n alkanes and by particular distributions of steranes and 4 methylsteranes comprising 24 nor and 24 methyl 27 norcholestanes and related novel steranes with a methylation at c 23 the presence of hopanoids of methanotrophic origin 13c up to 57 implies a temporarily enhanced full methane cycle in a marine environment which affected the isotopic composition of organisms dwelling in the upper photic zone the presence of isorenieratene derivatives indicate periods of euxinic conditions within the photic zone in all investigated sub basins

carbon isotope petrological and floral record in coals implication for bajocian middle jurassic climate change abstract much of our existing knowledge of middle jurassic paleoclimate is based on well dated marine isotopic records that show fluctuations between warm greenhouse effected and cool climates in contrast much less is known from contemporaneous terrestrial deposits that are often difficult to correlate stratigraphically with marine successions and are typically considered as showing regional rather than global signals in this paper we show that the carbon isotopic petrological and floral record through 20 m thick coals in the northern qaidam basin nw china represents a relatively comprehensive northern hemisphere bajocian middle jurassic record for terrestrial climatic change 13ccoal values for 88 samples from the yuqia area in northern qaidam basin range from 25 3 to 22 5 indicating that c3 plants were the main coal forming vegetation in the region during the middle jurassic this isotopic variation follows fluctuations in the composition of ferns and gymnosperms where higher ratios correspond to more negative 13c values the similar carbon isotope values of gymnosperms and coal from the yuqia area indicate that the coal comprises a high proportion of organic material derived from gymnosperm taxa which is consistent with the very high abundance of diterpenoids in coal and especially pimarane and abietane that are produced primarily by gymnosperms results from the coal matrix provide an opportunity to record paleoclimate changes showing several striking and regular coal forming cycles with distinct long and short term variations trends of 13ccoal values changes coupled with the evolution of coal forming plants may record a gradual increase in paleo co2 pco2 concentration water table level changes and the decrease in abundance of classopollis conifer pollen through bajocian this result is in accordance with the published marine carbonate records for this time with correlation enabled through matching carbon isotope curves from the terrestrial succession at yuqia and marine records the similarity of the terrestrial and marine geochemical and floral record is an indication that the observed paleoclimate signal is a global phenomenon furthermore the high frequency fluctuation of 13ccoal values along with the coal petrologic variations may record short term changes of environmental factors e g temperature or humidity precipitation especially during intervals when palaeobotanical composition has not fluctuated intensely

comment on an alternative view on the origin of chemical and isotopic patterns in groundwater from the milk river aquifer canada by m j hendry and f w schwartz the milk river aquifer in southern alberta combines apparently simple classical confined aquifer hydrodynamics with somewhat enigmatic groundwater geochemistry of conservative solutes over the past 10 years five major papers have focused on the geochemistry of milk river aquifer groundwater most recently hendry and schwartz 1988 have proposed a different mechanism aquitard diffusion to explain the milk river geochemistry they described and evaluated previously proposed geochemical processes especially ion filtration hendry and schwartz 1988 concluded that ion filtration and the other proposed mechanisms were not supported by the data they then described the aquitard diffusion mechanism and used a simple analytical model to simulate observed aquifer trends in cl sup minus and sup 18 o from the results of this exercise they concluded that diffusion from the aquitards was controlling the solute distributions in the aquifer finally they interpreted previously published sup 36 cl data and new profiles of cl sup minus in the aquitards in terms of the diffusion model upon review the authors do not find the arguments against ion filtration to be as damaging as hendry and schwartz indicate nor do they find the evidence for aquitard diffusion to be as persuasive in this study they will first evaluate hendry andmore schwartz s arguments against ion filtration then they will review the arguments in favor of aquitard diffusion and finally the authors will address the implications for the interpretation of the vertical cl sup minus profiles and the sup 36 cl data less

late cretaceous coal overlying karstic bauxite deposits in the parnassus ghiona unit central greece coal characteristics and depositional environment abstract the pera lakkos coal located on top of bauxite deposits in the ghiona mining district central greece is the only known mesozoic late cretaceous coal in the country it was derived from herbaceous plants and algae growing in mildly brackish mires that formed behind a barrier system during a regression of the sea on a karstified limestone partly filled in with bauxitic detritus petrological mineralogical and geochemical data point to the predominance of reducing conditions and intense organic matter degradation in the palaeomires o c vs h c and oi vs hi plots based on elemental analysis and rock eval data characterize kerogen types i ii this reflects the relatively high liptinite content of the coal besides kerogen composition o c vs h c plot for the pera lakkos coals is in accordance with a catagenesis stage of maturation in contrast with vitrinite reflectance and t max from rock eval pyrolysis which indicate the onset of oil window maturation stage suppression of vitrinite reflectance should be considered and the high liptinite content corroborates this hypothesis despite some favourable aspects for petroleum generation presented by the pera lakkos coal its maximum thickness up to 50 cm points to a restricted potential for petroleum generation coal oxidation took place either during the late stage of peat formation due to wave action accompanying the subsequent marine transgression or epigenetically after the emergence of the whole sequence due to percolation of drainage waters both options are also supported by the ree shale normalized profiles which demonstrate an upwards depletion in the coal layer oxidation also affected pyrite included in the coal this led to the formation of acidic sulfate rich solutions which percolated downwards resulting in bleaching of the upper part of the underlying bauxite

molecular and isotopic stratigraphy in an ombrotrophic mire for paleoclimate reconstruction a 40 cm deep sphagnum dominated peat monolith from bolton fell moss in northern england was systematically investigated by lipid molecular stratigraphy and compound specific 13c and d analysis using gas chromatography gc gc mass spectrometry gc ms gc combustion isotope ratio ms gc c irms and gc thermal conversion irms gc tc irms techniques 210pb dating showed the monolith accumulated during the last ca 220 yr a period encompassing the second part of little ice age while the distributions of lipids including n alkan 1 ols n alkan 2 ones wax esters sterols n alkanoic acids alkandioic acids and hydroxy acids display relatively minor changes with depth the cooler climate event was recorded in the concentrations of n alkanes and organic carbon cpi values of n alkanes and n alkanoic acids and the ratio of 5 n alkylresorcinols sterols superimposed on the fossil fuel effect the relatively cooler climate event was also recorded by 13c values of individual hydrocarbons especially the c23n alkane a major compound in certain sphagnum spp the d values of the c29 and c33n alkanes correlated mainly with plant composition and were relatively insensitive to climatic change in contrast the c23n alkane displayed variation that correlated strongly with recorded temperature for the period represented by the monolith agreeing with previously reported deuterium records in tree ring cellulose spanning the same period in scotland germany and the usa with more negative values occurring during the second part of little ice age these biomarker characteristics including the compound specific 13c and d records provide a new set of proxies of climatic change potentially independent of preserved macrofossils which will be of value in deeper sections of the bog where the documentary records of climate are unavailable and humification is well advanced

sesqui and diterpenoid biomarkers preserved in taxodium rich oligocene oxbow lake clays weisselster basin germany several diterpenoids of the abietane pimarane and phyllocladane type and three cadalanetype sesquiterpenoids have been identified in the organic solvent extracts of lower oligocene clay sediments haselbach strata saxony germany the sediment contains needles and cone scales of a fossil taxodium species which represents the only conifer in the samples a clear correlation between the observed conifer biomarkers and taxodium is evident apart from diterpenoids detected previously in other sediments a new diaromatic totarane diterpenoid is reported in isolated fossil and recent taxodium needles and cone scales as well as in the haselbach clays a phenolic diterpenoid of the abietane type ferruginol has been identified the results indicate that the taxodium rich clay samples contain several diterpenoids which so far have been used as biomarkers for other conifer families and thus the chemotaxonomical use of diterpenoid biomarkers for the differentiation of fossil conifer families has to be revised

control of 36cl production in carbonaceous shales by phosphate minerals abstract when using 36cl to date very old groundwater in regional aquifer systems knowledge of the subsurface 36cl input into the aquifer system is essential although 36cl can be produced through nuclear reactions in the subsurface in many situations the input of 36cl into sedimentary aquifer systems by this avenue of production can be neglected this is a valid assumption when investigating long flowpath groundwater systems composed of sandstones limestones and shales of typical composition these rock types are not sufficiently enriched in radioactive elements to produce significant 36cl in the deep subsurface carbonaceous shales on the other hand can concentrate the radioactive elements necessary to produce significant 36cl in the deep subsurface chlorine 36 ratios 36cl cl for a suite of late devonian and pennsylvanian carbonaceous shales were calculated from bulk rock chemistry as well as measured using accelerator mass spectrometry the poor agreement between calculated and measured ratios is the result of the assumption of chemical homogeneity used by the calculation algorithm an assumption that was not satisfied by the carbonaceous shales in these shales organic matter clay minerals and accessory minerals are heterogeneously distributed and are physically distinct on a micron order scale although organic matter and clay minerals constitute the overwhelming bulk of the shales it is the phosphate minerals that are most important in enhancing and suppressing 36cl production minerals such as apatite and carbonate apatite francolite by including uranium rare earth elements rees and halogens have an important impact on both neutron production and thermal neutron absorption by incorporating both uranium and fluorine phosphate minerals act as neutron production centers in the shale increasing the probability of 36cl production by incorporating rees and chlorine phosphate minerals also act to shield 35cl from the thermal neutron flux effectively suppressing the production of 36cl to reconcile the measured 36cl ratios with the ratios calculated assuming chemical homogeneity the shales were artificially split into three fractions organic clay mineral and phosphate mineral neutron production was calculated separately for each fraction and the calculation results demonstrated that the phosphate fraction exerted much more control on the 36cl ratio than the organic or clay mineral fractions by varying the uranium and chlorine contents in the phosphate fraction a new heterogeneous 36cl ratio was calculated that agreed with the measured ratio for the overwhelming majority of the carbonaceous shales when using rock chemistry to calculate the 36cl ratio rock types that show mineralogical heterogeneity on a micron scale can be divided into bulk fractions and accessory fractions for separate calculations of neutron production and neutron absorption in this manner a more accurate heterogeneous 36cl ratio can be calculated for the rock as a whole

rock magnetic and geochemical evidence for authigenic magnetite formation via iron reduction in coal bearing sediments offshore shimokita peninsula japan iodp site c0020 sediments recovered at integrated ocean drilling program iodp site c0020 in a forearc basin offshore shimokita peninsula japan include numerous coal beds 0 3 7 m thick that are associated with a transition from a terrestrial to marine depositional environment within the primary coal bearing unit 2 km depth below seafloor there are sharp increases in magnetic susceptibility in close proximity to the coal beds superimposed on a background of consistently low magnetic susceptibility throughout the remainder of the recovered stratigraphic sequence we investigate the source of the magnetic susceptibility variability and characterize the dominant magnetic assemblage throughout the entire cored record using isothermal remanent magnetization irm thermal demagnetization anhysteretic remanent magnetization arm iron speciation and iron isotopes magnetic mineral assemblages in all samples are dominated by very low coercivity minerals with unblocking temperatures between 350 580 c that are interpreted to be magnetite samples with lower unblocking temperatures 300 400 c higher arm higher frequency dependence and isotopically heavy 56fe across a range of lithologies in the coal bearing unit between 1925 1995 mbsf indicate the presence of fine grained authigenic magnetite we suggest that iron reducing bacteria facilitated the production of fine grained magnetite within the coal bearing unit during burial and interaction with pore waters the coal peat acted as a source of electron donors during burial mediated by humic acids to supply iron reducing bacteria in the surrounding siliciclastic sediments these results indicate that coal bearing sediments may play an important role in iron cycling in subsiding peat environments and if buried deeply through time within the subsequent deep biosphere

evolution of pennsylvanian late carboniferous peat swamps of the ruhr basin germany comparison of palynological coal petrographical and organic geochemical data abstract this study focuses on the reconstruction of the environment during peat swamp development eight coal and sedimentary organic rock bearing seam successions were examined all belonging to the duckmantian pennsylvanian late carboniferous 410 samples were analysed with coal petrographical methods 155 of these also by palynological methods in addition on 55 samples organic geochemical investigations were carried out with respect to n alkanes and iso alkanes the established coal petrographical parameters gelification index gi tissue preservation index tpi groundwater index gwi and vegetation index vi were used to characterize different periods of peat swamp development furthermore the new index wci water cover index was introduced to reflect water level conditions by using the ratio between hydrophilous hygrophilous and mesophilous plants in this study the index is based on palynological data but can be equally applied when quantitative macrofloral counts are available gi versus tpi values show two general trends of peat swamp evolution low gi and tpi values as indicator for drier swamp conditions like ombrogenous mires and high gi and tpi values which show a trend to water covered environments like topogenous mires in addition ash yields and gwi versus vi data also emphasize a general trend from topogenous to ombrogenous mires a decrease in water level towards the top of the seams and thus resulting in the development of domed mires is reflected by the newly introduced wci hence these parameters show recurrent peat swamp successions characterized by mineral and vitrinite rich coals typical for topogenous swamps and an evolution towards inertinite liptinite rich coals with low ash yield typical for ombrogenous swamps n alkane ratios like the carbon preference index cpi pristane n c17 phytane n c18 pristane phytane and the n c17 n c27 relationship indicate a strong correlation of these parameters with thermal maturity e g cpi values correlate with vitrinite reflectance sulphur organic carbon s toc ratios are quite uniform in clastic rocks with low to moderate toc contents but highly variable in coals probably reflecting variable sulphate availability during deposition of peats sphenophyll rich floral assemblages are restricted to low sulphur environments