| Title | Organic Geochemistry of Hydrothermal Petroleum in the Menderes-Gediz Graben System, Denizli-Saraykoy, Western Turkey:Preliminary Results |
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| Authors | Kadir Gürgey, Bernd R.T. Simoneit, Ismail H. Karamanderesi and Baki Varol |
| Year | 2005 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | Denizli, Turkey, organic geochemistry, Büyük Menderes graben, hydrothermal petroleum |
| Abstract | Western Turkey is situated in the geologic province of Aegean region. It is seismically one of the most active regions of the world and includes prospective areas for hydrocarbons, coal beds, and geothermal sources. The KB-5 well, from which the petroleum sample was taken, has been located at the intersection of the geothermally active Menderes and Gediz grabens near the town of Saraykoy. During drilling, the petroleum erupted onto the surface with its associated thermal water (120oC) from a depth of 120-132 m (e.g., from Early to Middle Pliocene aged claystone and marl). Drilling was stopped at a depth of 253 m when it reached to reservoir limestones of the Sazak Formation. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to understand the generation mechanism of the petroleum, either by geothermal-gradual or hydrothermal-rapid processes, and (2) to assess the nature of source from which it was derived. In order to achieve these purposes, the sample was analyzed by organic geochemistry using thin layer chromatographic separation followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The KB-5 petroleum is composed primarily of polar NSO compounds+asphaltenes (77%), aromatic hydrocarbons (19.22%), and minor saturated hydrocarbons (3.78%). This feature is similar to hydrothermal petroleum of Calcite Springs from Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S.A. TIC traces of the KB-5 sample shows n-alkanes ranging from n-C20 to n-C38 but depleted |