Hot oil in the Russian Arctic: Precipitation of vanadiferous bitumens, Novaya Zemlya

摘要

Bitumens in the Devonian-Carboniferous of Novaya Zemlya are vanadium-rich, manifested as inclusions of the aluminosilicate roscoelite and the sulphide sulvanite. These phases and a copper-tin-vanadium sulphide also occur in bitumen in the New Siberian Islands. In common with other vanadiferous bitumens elsewhere, the Novaya Zemlya examples are thermally mature, and were deposited from high temperature fluids (up to 200+ °C) rather than thermally altered from low temperature deposits. This is part of growing evidence for the migration of oils in hydrothermal conditions, at temperatures higher than normally regarded as conducive to oil stability.