Computer Science
Scientific paper
Oct 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992gecoa..56.3851m&link_type=abstract
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol. 56, Issue 10, pp.3851-3854
Computer Science
Scientific paper
The transition metals, captured from sedimentary waters by chlorophyll, have been proposed as the catalytic agents that convert n -alkane biolipids into the rearranged light hydrocarbons in petroleum. Certain ancient oils (Ordovician) display a depletion in chlorophyll, suggesting that they may have been derived from sedimentary rocks also depleted in transition metals. These oils show anomalously high concentrations of n -heptane relative to their respective rearranged isoalkane and cycloalkane products. This extraordinary enrichment in light n -alkanes appears unique to the chlorophyll-deficient Ordovician oils. The high concentrations of n -heptane may have resulted from the thermal cracking of higher n -alkanes, which are known to be dominant components of the kerogenous precursors to the Ordovician oils. However, the methylhexanes, which have no thermolytic precursors enriched in the kerogenous source, show a proportionate increase in concentration. The contention, therefore, that thermal cracking might explain the n -heptane anomaly is untenable since a kerogenous starting material enriched in n -alkanes and depleted in isoalkanes cannot reasonably crack to a light hydrocarbon product enriched in both n -alkanes and isoalkanes. According to a postulated catalytic cycle, n -alkane and isoalkane concentrations are controlled by the relative rates of two divergent pathways. If the various transition metals that may catalyze these reactions differ in activity, then a unique distribution of metals created by a chlorophyll deficiency could explain the Ordovician anomaly.
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