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Biomarker compounds as indicators of paleoenvironments

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Abstract

In an attempt to assess the paleoenvironments of terrestrial sediments, some twenty-two representative Chinese non-marine sediment samples were studied using the molecular organic geochemistry method. The sediment samples studied include oilshale, shale, mudstone and glauber salt from Tertiary to Cretaceous in age. Judging from geological /geochemical data and paleosalinity data, the samples studied are of lacustrine sedimentary origin and can be divided into three different types: fresh water, brackish and saline /hypersaline lake sediments. The aliphatic fractions were separated from the extracts of the samples and analysed by means of GC and GC /MS instruments, giving a number of parameters such as relative abundances of alkanes and cycloalkanes as shown in the mass chromatograms.

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This project was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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Fu, J., Sheng, G., Xu, J. et al. Biomarker compounds as indicators of paleoenvironments. Chin. J. of Geochem. 11, 1–12 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02875654

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