Petroleum Geochemistry and Source Rock Potential of Carbonate Rocks (Aapg Studies in Geology)

Carbonate rocks have diverse characteristics. They can be excellent reservoirs as well as prolific source rocks for oil. Oils from carbonate rocks commonly have distinctive bulk chemical and molecular characteristics that reveal their origin. The lack of widespread appreciation for these facts in the geological community was one reason that a symposium entitled "Petroleum Geochemistry and Source Rock Potential of Carbonate Rocks" was organized and held at the Geological Society of America annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in October 1980. The symposium was sponsored by the Organic Geochemistry Division of the Geochemical Society during my term as chairman of the division. Of the 18 papers given in the symposium, 12 papers and four abstracts are included herein. Also included in this volume are two papers that were prepared later.