Russia is a huge country with many places that are unique in their beauty and natural richness. Among them is the Uzon volcano caldera located in the middle of the East Kamchatka Volcanic Belt of the Kamchatka Peninsula. This place has become a point of interest for geologists, as the youngest Uzon oil on the globe.
What conclusions have been made by scientists from results of the study of the new oil and how big petroleum potential of these areas might be is the focus of this OGIA’s(Oil and Gas Information Agency) essay.
The Uzon caldera is considered one of the world’s places with unique geological, ecological and microbiological characteristics. Discovered as early as in 1854 by Karl Ditmar, Russian geologist, explorer of Kamchatka, the Uzon caldera represents a bowl-shaped basin 9x12 km in size. The highest point is Baraniy Peak Mt. 1617 m a.s.l. The present-day appearance of caldera has formed about 40 kyr years ago after a phase of intense eruptions.
It is intense hydrothermal activity in this area that attracts the attention of scientists: there are about 100 boiling (hot) springs in the western part alone, and more than 500 sites that have lend themselves to such a phenomenon. The caldera also has a rich flora and fauna. Various algae and bacteria that live there affect the formation of mineral deposits. Interestingly, they have been evolving at fairly high temperatures between 45-98°C.
The natural laboratory of Uzon is saturated with hydrothermal solutions rich in 65 minerals, such as arsenic, iron, mercury, sulfur, antimony, copper, including uzonite which was discovered on the volcano. Also gases - carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, radon – are found to be present.
The unique natural complex is complemented by oil seep sites which harbor the youngest oil on the globe. Petroleum shows (“black gold”) were first discovered in 1969 by Soviet scientists Sofia Naboko, Spiridon Glavatskikh, together with a high-professional petroleum specialist Nikolai Beskrovny, PhD (geol.-mineral.). They examined the middle site in the thermal field in all the test pits. The oily green, in some cases, colorless, oil spots, odorless or with strong kerosene odour, came to the surface of hot water filling the test pit. In the course of further studies oil shows were found to be present almost ubiquitously.
Gennady Karpov, a Soviet and Russian volcanologist, D Sc (geol.-mineral.), did a tremendous job studying the Uzen oil. He was the discoverer of modern stromatites and sulfur-biogenic formations (aka Karpov rings) in the Uzon caldera. In his work "Oil shows in the Uzon volcano caldera in Kamchatka ", he notes that "black gold" was more likely to occur where orpiment and realgar minerals were deposited.
"While 40-60°C isotherms tend to encompass areas benign for concentrations of colorless oil, 60-80°C isotherms account for green oil locations remote from mud pots. At sites with low-temperature hydrothermal solutions (<40°C), no oil was found. Results of the laboratory studies have assigned the Uzon oil to the methane-petroleum-aromatic type, featuring it generally as heavy (specific gravity 0.9148 g/cm*), resinous (9.3% of resins), sulfurous (2% of sulfur), low-paraffin (2.1%) oil," wrote Gennady Karpov.
The remarkable fact is that in the research literature (particularly in Russia), publications tend to emerge, which draw heavily on conceptions of abiogenic synthesis ( abiogenic deep origin) of oil and use evidence of genetic relation of oil to magmatic chambers based on occurrences of hydrocarbons (HC)in the products of modern volcanoes’ activity - as the most forcible arguments. The findings in the Uzon volcano caldera (Kamchatka) are frequently mentioned as an example of these naphthide shows.
To identify the nature of the oil shows, scientists from IPGG SB RAS have also collected and analyzed the Uzon samples. As explained by Alexander Fomin, D Sc (geol.-mineral.), principal researcher at the Laboratory of Petroleum Geochemistry, IPGG SB RAS, the oil from this site is of great interest to the scientific community.
“Our institute was largely engaged in the study of the Uzon oil. Frankly speaking, the analyzed samples showed negligible presence of oil. To collect 100 grams of the "black gold", several sites had to be manually dug (while making sampling pits that soon filled with groundwater). Our key goal was to understand how these oil shows relate to biogenic syntheses. Owing to the discharge of high-temperature hydrotherms, the caldera sediments almost from the very surface are heated to temperatures locally reaching 90°C. According to estimates, the temperature could reach 200–250 °C at a depth of 500 m.” – the researcher emphasized.
The lab research results revealed that hydrocarbon type content of oil shows from the Uzon caldera is dominated by hydrocarbons (90-93%). Among them, the saturated HC by weight are twice as much as the aromatic ones.
“The composition of saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons in oil shows of the Uzon caldera shows that they have been derived from lipids of the remains of land plant brought in sediments, aquabionts (inhabitants of caldera sediments and bottom waters), and the living matter of bacteria. This source for lipids of initial living matter is also confirmed by the carbon isotope composition of fossilized organic matter. Judging from the composition of biomarker hydrocarbons of oil, the level of initial organic matter maturity corresponds the very beginning of the main phase of oil generation,” notes Alexander Fomin.
According to him, the Uzon hydrocarbons are distinguished by the inherited hydrocarbon skeleton and lipid stereochemistry of the initial living matter. In these “young” formations, the biomarker abundance becomes apparent to a greater degree than in “normal” oils.
"The Uzon caldera represents a natural laboratory of recent generation of oil from the organic matter of Pliocene–Lower Quaternary sediments in hydrothermal areas (i.e. hydrothermal petroleum, or oil found in natural outlets within active hydrothermal fields). The Uzon petroleum is the youngest on Earth, with initial estimates at 1000 years, and later found to be only 50 years old. Although hydrothermal petroleum is found elsewhere, Uzon oil is the youngest on Earth. It should also be noted that studies have shown that the claim that these oil phenomena are abiogenic synthesis is unfounded," the expert emphasized.
The foregoing confirms M.K. Kalinko’s hypothesis (1975) stated earlier that due to the impact of hydrotherms, oil is generated from the recent organic matter buried in sediments at the present moment of geological time.
The Uzon caldera is a natural system, in which, owing to the discharge of high-temperature hydrotherms, sediments almost from the very surface are affected by pressure and temperatures that in the classic petroliferous basins occur at depths of 2–3 km and deeper, and isa unique natural laboratory of the present-day naphthide genesis.
Attempts to consider the compounds forming these oil shows as a product of abiogenic synthesis of hydrocarbons are absolutely unfounded," concluded Alexander Fomin.
Scientists are confident that research into the phenomenon of Uzon natural petroleum seepage should be continued. And the sources of organic material rom which this oil derived need to be elaborated on.
Genetic similarities
There are also places in the world where hydrothermal naphthides are reported, with the only difference that they are not so young compared to Uzon oil. The phenomena of natural petroleum seepage have been reported from New Zealand, Japan, the United States, and Western Turkey, and also from Russia – on the Bogachevka River.
As noted by Valery Karpov, PhD (geol.-mineral.), an OGIA expert, Honored Geologist of Russia, the discoveries of young oil within the Uzon caldera are critically important.
"They are capable to bring the geoscience community closer to resolving the long-standing dispute over the oil genesis. The study is also of practical importance, as it can dramatically change the geography of searches for hydrocarbons," he said. – Ultimately, such targets may be identified in other areas with modern volcanism and enhanced tectonic activity.
However, evaluating the possibility of using the obtained paleomagnetic data for a target region, in order to optimize the mineral exploration methods and technology, is every bit as important. We should not forget that a volcano represents a kind of natural “uncased well” with fluids and rock actively intermingling during its lifetime. Besides, bearing in mind their potential connection with a deep fault, the "young" age of this oil maybe put into question, since ingress of young hydrocarbons may have been possible during the most recent tectonic events and volcanic activity. This however remains to be studied. By all appearances, our knowledge about this phenomenon appears largely limited for now."
Despite all the challenges posed by the Uzon volcano caldera to scientists, their diversity and unique interplay attest to the uniqueness of this natural complex. There is still a lot of research needs to be done at this site, to achieve a consensus on general understanding of the origin of oil, and several other minerals that are equally vital for modern life, especially in energy, technology, and various industries. A genuine interest from the scientific community is imperative in this respect, as well as well warranted methods for conducting research on such rare phenomena.
For more information, please, see: Karpov G.A.(1980)"Uzon, the protected land" (Moscow, LOGATA); Beskrovnyi, N.S., Lebedev, B.A. (1971). Oil shows in the Uzon volcano caldera in Kamchatka (Dokl. Akad. Nauk 201 (4), 953–956); Beskrovnyi N.S., Naboko S.I., et al. (1971). On the oil and gas content of hydrothermal systems related to volcanism. (Geologiya i Geofizika, No. 2, 3–14)
Photo courtesy of A.N. Fomin
The material is prepared by Oil and Gas Information Agency: (https://www.angi.ru/news/2925702-Кальдер%20вулкана%20Узон%3A%20Самая%20молодая%20нефть%20мира%20в%20руках%20ученых/)