Application of PCA and HCA in geochemical parameters to distinguish depositional paleoenvironments from source rocks

Abstract Oil-producing rocks can be characterized by organic, inorganic and palynological geochemical parameters to assess the quantity and quality of organic matter. In the present study, samples of source rocks collected from different formations (Fm) from the sedimentary basins of the Parnaiba (Pimentairas Formation) and Parana (Irati and Ponta Grossa Formations) were evaluated through the geochemical correlation between the types of organic matter and their different depositional paleoenvironments using chemometric tools. Among the inorganic geochemical parameters used in this evaluation are the concentrations and the diagnostic ratios between the transition elements (Co, Ni, V, and Mo) and internal transition (lanthanides and U). The analysis of the transition and internal transition elements were performed by ICP OES (Ni and V) and ICP MS (Co, Mo, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Tm, Yb, Lu, and U). The organic geochemical parameters selected for the characterization of the quantity and quality of the organic matter present in the samples of source rocks involved the determination of their total carbon content (%TOC) and sulfur (%TS), of the potential generator (S2) the amount of hydrocarbons produced by Rock-Eval pyrolysis and the calculation of the hydrogen (HI) and oxygen (OI) indexes. To compose the matrix of the multivariate analysis (PCA), were used ratios Ni/Co, V/Ni, U/Mo, V/V + Ni, TOC/TS the values of S2, HI, OI and the sum of rare earth elements (REE). The kerogen type, obtained through the HI and OI data, were also included in the matrix, information on the origin of the organic matter, and on the type of depositional paleoenvironment of each sample, obtained from previous works. It was observed the formation of three groups of data characterizing the formations Irati, Ponta Grossa and Pimenteiras according to the type of kerogen and organic matter, and also of its depositional paleoenvironment, showing that the exploratory data analysis allows the obtaining of rapid and efficient information on the chemical similarity between the complex samples from each formation.