Palynological research microscope for fluorescence and vitrinite reflectance

艾伯塔省的油砂使加拿大在全球石油储量中排名第二：然而，尽管技术高度集中在开采这些矿藏上，但关于石油侵位的来源、时间和性质仍然存在许多问题。埃及西部沙漠是一个主要的碳氢化合物系统，来源是侏罗纪和白垩纪的页岩，但它的埋藏史鲜为人知，至少在已出版的文献中是这样。人们正在寻找一个多功能、经济高效的透射式/入射光显微镜工作站，通过测量所含有机物质的光学特征来量化这两个经济重要地区的埋藏史，通常是在北美西部内陆盆地内。石油和天然气勘探需要详细了解任何潜在盆地的热史，因为岩石中的有机物质必须经过加热才能释放碳氢化合物。仅地温梯度就足以产生这种热量。因此，确定潜在的源岩在埋藏期间是否经历了足够的加热是评估沉积盆地前景的关键因素。现代沉积物中的某些有机颗粒(特别是当蓝光/紫外光激发时，花粉、孢子、甲藻包囊)将发生自发荧光。其他颗粒(镜质组)在自然界中集中在一起，反射入射光。随着埋藏(和热量)的增加，自发荧光的强度降低并向较低的频率移动，镜质组的反射率增加。这些变化是渐进的，使沉积盆地的热成熟度得以量化。所需的设备代表了一种成本和时间高效的显微镜系统，利用通过视频图像和软件分析测量的自发荧光和镜质组反射率。其用途将扩展到孢粉相分析和对现代和化石甲藻孢囊的关键研究。在加拿大学术界，这些分析显然只能通过GSC-卡尔加里中心获得，该机构收到了来自加拿大各地大学和工业界的大量订单。目前的提议解决了一个关键需求，布罗克大学的一个设施满足了加拿大中部和其他地区的需求。

The oil sands of Alberta place Canada second in global oil reserves: yet despite the intense focus of technology on exploiting these deposits, many questions remain concerning the origins, timing and nature of oil emplacement.  The Western Desert of Egypt is a major hydrocarbon system sourced by Jurassic and Cretaceous shales, but its burial history is poorly known, at least within the published literature.  Funds are sought for a versatile, cost-effective, transmitted/incident-light microscope work station that will quantify the burial history of these two economically important regions, and generally within the Western Interior Basin of North America, by measuring the optical characteristics of the contained organic material. Oil and gas exploration requires detailed knowledge of the thermal history of any prospective basin, as organic material in the rock must undergo heating to liberate hydrocarbons. The geothermal gradient alone can be sufficient to generate this heat.  Determining whether potential source rocks have undergone sufficient heating during burial is therefore a key element in assessing the prospects of a sedimentary basin. Certain organic particles in modern sediments (esp. pollen, spores, dinoflagellate cysts) will autofluoresce when excited by blue/ultraviolet light.  Other particles (vitrinite) are coally in nature and reflect incident light.  With increasing burial (and heat), autofluorescence decreases in intensity and shifts to lower frequencies, and vitrinite increases in reflectivity.  These changes are progressive, allowing the thermal maturity of a sedimentary basin to be quantified.  The requested equipment represents a cost- and time-efficient microscope system utilizing autofluorescence and vitrinite reflectance measured by video imagery and software analysis. Use will be extended to palynofacies analysis and critical research on modern and fossil dinoflagellate cysts. Within the Canadian academic sector, these analyses are apparently available only through the GSC-Calgary, a facility overwhelmed with orders from universities and industry across Canada.  The current proposal addresses a crucial demand, with a facility at Brock University fulfilling needs within central Canada and beyond.