Organic geochemistry of mid-continent Ordovician oils

Early Paleozoic oils retain the biochemical imprint of oceanic life prior to evolution of land plants and vertebrates. Thus, these oils have geochemical features which make them unique with respect to younger oils, but also share some common properties with the latter. Characteristic mid-continent Ordovician oil features include predominance of n-C/sub 14/ to n-C/sub 19/ over n-C/sub 20/+ alkanes in the C/sub 15/+ saturate hydrocarbon fraction, low amounts of isoprenoids and abundant C/sub 27/ and C/sub 29/ diasteranes relative to normal steranes. Properties common to both Ordovician and younger oils are: nearly equal amounts of C/sub 15/+ n-alkanes, cycloalkanes, and aromatics and pristane/phytane ratios of 0.7 to 1.6. Collectively, these Ordovician oils have a relatively negative stable carbon isotopic composition but are not unique with respect to other marine oils. Although terpane distributions are generally similar to geologically-younger oils, the Ordovician oils contain significant amounts of C/sub 19/, C/sub 20/, and C/sub 21/ tricyclic diterpanes relative to the C/sub 23/ homolog as well as large contributions by C/sub 31/+ pentacyclic triterpanes. Presence of long-chained n-alkanes, C/sub 29/ steranes, and C/sub 24/ tetracyclic terpanes, which are generally accepted as input from land plants in, e.g., Tertiary deposits, are also present inmore » Ordovician oils. The characteristics listed above describe oils from the Williston and Michigan basins as well as Ordovician oils from Kansas and Oklahoma.« less