Abstract
In order to study the distribution and geological significance of steroids compounds in the surface sediments, 13 recent sedimentary samples were collected from the rivers in Guangzhou, Jieyang and Yichang, and Fuxian Lake in Kunming. We investigated the distributions of steroids and the mineral compositions in those samples were analysed. Meanwhile, the relationship of mineral composition to the steroid distributions were analysed. The results showed that the mineral composition of the investigated recent sediments varied with different regions. Regular steranes were existed in all of Soxhlet extracts of the investigated sediments, while aromatic steroids were absent in some samples. Meanwhile, aromatic steroids can be generated by both biogeochemical reaction and thermal maturation catalysed by clay minerals. The sediments from the Yichang and Fuxian Lake areas revealed that the clay minerals showed little catalytic effects during the early diagenesis. And the samples from the Guangzhou and Jieyang areas suggested that the microbial reactions had dominant effect during the steroids aromatization. Therefore, the distributions of steroids in those recent sediments mainly influenced by microbial reaction.
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