Structural characterization of kerogen in 3.4 Ga Archaean

• Main Authors: Western Australia, Craig P. Marshall A, Gordon D. Love C, Colin E. Snape E, Andrew C. Hill F, Abigail C. Allwood B, Malcolm R. Walter B, Martin J. Van Kranendonk G, Stephen A. Bowden H, Sean P. Sylva I, Roger E. Summons C
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: North Pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.207.468; http://earthsciences.ucr.edu/docs/Marshall%20et%20al%20%202007%20(2).pdf

Hydrogen-lean kerogen (atomic H/C < 0.46) isolated from the 3.4 Ga Strelley Pool Chert in the North Pole area, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, were studied by vibrational spectroscopy (Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (solid state 13 C NMR spectroscopy), catalytic hydropyrolysis followed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HyPy–GC–MS), and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). The kerogen occurs in sedimentary rocks as clasts and clots deposited together with other detrital materials that are finely disseminated throughout a chert matrix. The bulk kerogen δ 13 C values range from −28.3 to −35.8‰. Solid-state 13 C NMR spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy reveals that the kerogen is highly aromatic (fa varying from 0.90 to 0.92) and contains only minor aliphatic carbon or carbon-oxygenated (C–O)