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Investigations about porosity in petroleum reservoir rocks are discussed by Schmoker and Gautier. Pollastro discusses the uses of clay minerals as exploration tools that help to elucidate basin, source-rock, and reservoir history. The status of fission-track analysis, which is useful for determining the thermal and depositional history of deeply buried sedimentary rocks, is outlined by Naeser. The various ways workers have attempted to determine accurate ancient and present-day subsurface temperatures are summarized with numerous references by Barker. Clayton covers three topics: (1) the role of kinetic modeling in petroleum exploration, (2) biological markers as an indicator of depositional environment of source rocks and composition of crude oils, and (3) geochemistry of sulfur in source rocks and petroleum. Anders and Hite evaluate the current status of evaporite deposits as a source for crude oil.
For many years, the subject matter encompassed by the title of this book was largely limited to those who were interested in the two most economically important organic materials found buried in the Earth, namely, coal and petroleum. The point of view of any discussions which might occur, either in scientific meetings or in books that have been written, was, therefore, dominated largely by these interests. A great change has occurred in the last decade. This change had as its prime mover our growing knowledge of the molecular architecture of biological systems which, in turn, gave rise to a more legitimate asking of the question: "How did life come to be on the surface of the Earth?" A second motivation arose when the possibilities for the exploration of planets other than the Earth-the moon, Mars, and other parts of the solar system-became a reality. Thus the question of the possible existence of life elsewhere than on Earth conceivably could be answered.
This book has been prepared by the collaborative effort of two somewhat separate technical groups: the researchers at the Institute for Petroleum and Organic Geochemistry, Forschungszentrum Jii lich (KFA), and the technical staff of Integrated Exploration Systems (IES). One of us, Donald R. Baker, from Rice University, Houston, has spent so much time at KFA as a guest scientist and researcher that it is most appropriate for him to contribute to the book. During its more than 20-year history the KFA group has made numerous and significant contributions to the understanding of petroleum evolution. The KFA researchers have emphasized both the field and laboratory approaches to such important pr...