The value of OTA in geological explorations: Some applications in organic matter analysis

摘要

OTA is a modification of thermal analysis, which gives a comprehensive insight into the behavior of organic matter and its physico--chemical reactivity during heating in air atmosphere. The thermal oxidation of organic matter results in exothermic reactions indicated by sharply defined peaks on the thermal curves. The number of reactions, their temperature and the amount of evolved heat are characteristic and structure dependent features of the combusted material (Cebulak and Langier-Kuzniarowa, 1997). The oxyreactive thermal analysis of organic matter, proved efficient in many geological and related problems. Some examples of OTA applications in organic matter analysis are outlined below. The evaluation of the thermal history of the rock complexes. The heat flowing through the earth crust as well as the heat resulted from magmatic intrusions into sedimentary complexes causes transformations of the organic matter (DOM) dispersed in rocks. The OTA is an effective tool to research such indicative features of DOM, which can help in the investigation of thermal evolution of rocks. Using parameters calculated on the basis of mutual relation between exothermic peaks of the OTA curves it is possible to diversify the organic matter relative to the extent of the thermal transformation and genetic features of the organic matter (Cebulak et al., 2002). The advantage of the OTA is that it covers a wide range of thermally transformed organic matter from the diagenetic to metamorphic stage.