A preliminary study of asphalt from a large sulphur deposit in China by the approach of molecular organic geochemistry

Zhujiazhuang natural sulphur deposit is a huge sulphur deposit in Shangdong Province, China. In this paper, biomarker composition of connate sulphuric asphalt was studied in detail by means of gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) technique, and two newly discovered compounds, GX and C33 thiohopane, were identified. It is suggested, by molecular evidences, that the re-accumulation of sulphur was originally associated with the reduction of organic matter and bacterial activities in evaporite-clastic source beds during early diagenesis. Genetically, this sulphur deposit probably belongs to the stratum-bound type.