Palynological research microscope for fluorescence and vitrinite reflectance

阿尔伯塔的油砂使加拿大在全球石油储量中排名第二：然而，尽管技术高度关注开采这些矿床，但关于石油就位的起源、时间和性质仍存在许多问题。 埃及西部沙漠是由侏罗纪和白垩纪页岩来源的主要碳氢化合物系统，但其埋藏历史知之甚少，至少在已发表的文献中是如此。 目前正在寻求资金，以建立一个多功能的、具有成本效益的透射/入射光显微镜工作站，通过测量所含有机物质的光学特性，量化这两个经济重要地区的埋藏历史，一般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历史，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。仅地热梯度就足以产生这种热量。 因此，确定潜在的烃源岩在埋藏过程中是否经历了足够的加热是评估沉积盆地前景的一个关键因素。现代沉积物中的某些有机颗粒（特别是花粉，孢子，甲藻孢囊）在受到蓝光/紫外光激发时会自发荧光。 其他颗粒（镜质组）是煤的性质和反射入射光。 随着埋藏（和热量）的增加，自发荧光强度降低，并向低频移动，镜质组反射率增加。 这些变化是渐进的，可以量化沉积盆地的热成熟度。 所要求的设备是一个具有成本和时间效益的显微镜系统，利用通过视频图像和软件分析测量的自发荧光和镜质体反射率。使用将扩展到孢粉相分析和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，一个设施与来自加拿大各地的大学和行业的订单不堪重负。 目前的提案解决了一个关键的需求，在布鲁克大学设施满足加拿大中部和以外的需求。

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.