Seeps and other bitumen showings: a review of origin, nomenclature and occurrences in Greenland

Studies of oil and gas seeps and solid bitumens provide important data on past and present distribution of hydrocarbons in sedimentary basins and hence have great importance in petroleum exploration.

In the present report the origin and degradation of bitumens is briefly introduced and the complicated terminology is reviewed.

Seeps and bitumens are common in most of the onshore sedimentary basins of Greenland. All known examples are listed in the present pl:lper and examples of their geochemical composition (LECO, Rock Eval pyrolysis, GC, GC/MS) are discussed. Many of the bitumens are strongly thermally altered or severely biodegraded. In a number of cases, however, degradation is less intense and the bitumens can be geochemically correlated to known or inferred source rocks. Some of these examples are encouraging for future exploration.