Hydrocarbons and other volatile components in alkaline rocks from the Ukrainian shield and Kola Peninsula

Abstract

Gas chromatography and other analytical techniques (EMR, PMR, and IR spectroscopy) were used to examine volatile components (CH4, C2-C3, CO2, CO, H2, H2O, and others) in alkaline rocks and minerals from the Ukrainian Shield (eight massifs and dikes of grorudites) and from the Khibina and Lovozero massifs in the Baltic Shield. The alkaline rocks from the Ukrainian Shield are mostly of Proterozoic (1.7–2.1 Ga) age. The alkaline rocks from the Kola Peninsula were confirmed to be rich in methane (21 ± 14 μl/g on average) and other hydrocarbons, whereas the analogous rocks from the Ukrainian Shield are poor in methane (2.1 ± 1.6 μl/g on average at a maximum of 14 μl/g). The latter rocks are richer in CO2, which is one of the major volatile components of alkaline rocks, including agpaitic nepheline syenites from the Kola Peninsula. The rocks from the Ukrainian Shield often have elevated contents of nitrogen (up to 20 μl/g). The reasons for the differences in the composition of volatile components of rocks from the Kola Peninsula and Ukrainian Shield are as follows: the agpaitic crystallization trends of large massifs in the Kola Peninsula and much less clearly pronounced agpaitic trends in the small massifs in the Ukrainian Shield, the affiliation of these rocks with different complexes, the deeper erosion levels of the Ukrainian alkaline massifs, different ages of these rocks, etc.