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Testing the preservation of biomarkers during experimental maturation of an immature kerogen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2016

H. Mißbach ,
J.-P. Duda ,
N.K. Lünsdorf ,
B.C. Schmidt  and
V. Thiel
H. Mißbach*
Affiliation:
Department of Geobiology, Geoscience Centre, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
J.-P. Duda
Affiliation:
Department of Geobiology, Geoscience Centre, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany ‘Origin of Life’ Group, Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Theaterstraße 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
N.K. Lünsdorf
Affiliation:
Department of Sedimentology and Environmental Geology, Geoscience Centre, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
B.C. Schmidt
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental and Applied Mineralogy, Geoscience Centre, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
V. Thiel
Affiliation:
Department of Geobiology, Geoscience Centre, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
*
e-mail: hmissba@gwdg.de
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Abstract

Lipid biomarkers have been extensively applied for tracing organisms and evolutionary processes through Earth's history. They have become especially important for the reconstruction of early life on Earth and, potentially, for the detection of life in the extraterrestrial realm. However, it is not always clear how exactly biomarkers reflect a paleoecosystem as their preservation may be influenced by increasing temperatures (T) and pressures (P) during burial. While a number of biomarker indices reflecting thermal maturity have been established, it is often less well constrained to which extent biomarker ratios used for paleoreconstruction are compromised by T and P processes. In this study we conducted hydrous pyrolysis of Green River Shale (GRS) kerogen in gold capsules for 2–2400 h at 300°C to assess the maturation behaviour of several compounds used as life tracers and for the reconstruction of paleoenvironments (n-alkanes, pristane, phytane, gammacerane, steranes, hopanes and cheilanthanes). Lignite samples were maturated in parallel with the GRS kerogen to obtain exact vitrinite reflectance data at every sampling point. Our experiment confirms the applicability of biomarker-based indices and ratios as maturity indicators (e.g. total cheilanthanes/hopanes ratio; sterane and hopane isomerization indices). However, several biomarker ratios that are commonly used for paleoreconstructions (e.g. pristane/phytane, pristane/n-C17, phytane/n-C18 and total steranes/hopanes) were considerably affected by differences in the thermal degradation behaviour of the respective compounds. Short-term experiments (48 h) performed at 400°C also revealed that biomarkers >C15 (especially steranes and hopanes) and ‘biological’ chain length preferences for n-alkanes are vanished at a vitrinite reflectance between 1.38 and 1.83% RO. Our data highlight that ‘thermal taphonomy’ effects have to be carefully considered in the interpretation of biomarkers in ancient rocks and, potentially, extraterrestrial materials.

Keywords

biomarker ratiosclosed system pyrolysisgas chromatography–mass spectrometryGreen River Shalematurity indicatorsvitrinite reflectancethermal degradation
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 15 , Special Issue 3: Early life processes: A geo- and astrobiological approach , July 2016 , pp. 165 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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