Soil-sorbed, sulfur-containing gases: analytical methodology and preliminary application to geochemical petroleum prospecting

Abstract

The object of this project was to examine a possible relation between hydrocarbon accumulations at depth and surface-soil concentrations of S-containing gases (S-gases). Two independent, sensitive techniques selective for S-gases were used to analyze the gases thermally desorbed from surface soil samples taken from on and off a producing oil field, the Pineview field in NE Utah, U.S.A. One technique, metal foil collection/flash desorption/S-selective detection (MFC/FD/SSD), is a rapid “total” S-gas technique. The other, an improved high resolution, cryogenic gas chromatograph/flame photometric detector system (HRGC/FPD), separates and quantifies the individual S-gases. The relative S responses from the two techniques correlated well when used to analyze the same surface soil samples. The larger S responses from the Pineview samples were associated both with the areal extent of the field and with the larger soil-atmosphere hydrocarbon responses from a previous independent survey.