Applications of Radiolarian for Productivity and Hydrocarbon-Source Rocks

Investigation on hydrocarbon-source rocks indicates that marine hydrocarbon-source rocks usually are featured with abundant fossil radiolarians and siliceous rock interbeds,but researches on the relations among them have been scarce.This paper first reviews some research results about the radiolarian ecology and paleoecology,and the relations among radiolarian and productivity,paleoproductivity.And then the Paleozoic radiolarians are divided into three paleoecological assemblages,of which the shallow water assemblage(Se assemblage)has high corelation coefficient with total organic carbon(TOC),indicating that the radiolarian assemblage can be used as a proxy to the paleo-productivity and is an important contributor for the Paleozoic marine productivity.Biological studies of radiolarians have proved that many radiolarian organisms are characterized with high lipid and that radiolarian organisms can be well preserved in some sedimentary basins.Therefore,radiolarians probably are also major contributor of organic material in the Paleozoic marine hydrocarbon-source rocks,which offers a good explanation to the consanguineous relation between radiolarian,radiolarite and marine hydrocarbon-source rocks.