Applicability Limits of the Maturity Concept in Organic Geochemistry. II Relationships between the Rates of Reactions of Different Type

The paper considers how different maturity criteria reflect the overall degree of approach to the chemical equilibrium state of OM. The material for this study was OM from carbonate, siliceous–carbonate, carbonate–siliceous, and siliceous rocks of the northern and central regions of the Volga–Ural area (more than 100 samples). The raw data were processed using the apparatus of nonparametric correlation analysis (paired correlation coefficients between 27 parameters and partial correlation coefficients). The strengths of relations between maturity criteria based on reactions of different type (for example, reactions of C–C bond cleavage and isomerization reactions of aromatic compounds) were studied. It is shown that none of the 266 correlation coefficients corresponds to the values characteristic of a functional dependence. The partial correlation coefficients show that there are only thirteen pairs in which the parameters determined by reactions of different type are directly interrelated, and the strength of the relation significantly affects the values of both parameters. Thus, the values we measured in carbonate and silicite rocks cannot be to used to characterize the general approach of their OM to chemical equilibrium. Although the concept of “maturity” may have, technically speaking, the meaning of a general tendency toward equilibrium, it should be admitted that no methods are available so far to measure it. No data can be used to identify the only single parameter whose value is controlled only by the maturity value. Moreover, it is quite probable that there is no such a parameter at all. Nowadays the degree of approach to chemical equilibrium can be characterized only by using a set of parameters determined by reactions of all four types identified in the work.