Organic matter in thermal waters of the Pannonian Basin - a preliminary report on aromatic compounds

About 50 formation waters, produced from wells tapping the aquifers of the elastic Pannonian Basin and Mesozoic carbonates, were studied by GC-MS for their content of hexane soluble organic compounds. About half of the waters studied are hotter than 65 degrees C (the regional threshold of thermal ga s generation) and always contain a great variety of naturally occurring pol ycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) consisting of aromatic hydrocarbons, he teroaromatics and in some cases phenols. These waters are not known to be c onnected with oil pools. The most characteristic compound classes of six PAM-rich water samples are discussed here. Mono-, di-, tri- and tetracyclic aromatic and heterocyclic fused aromatic hydrocarbons are present in these waters but in rather varyi ng relative proportion. The absence of phenols in two of these waters, one produced from a carbonate and one from a sandy aquifer, is explained by the absence of terrestrial kerogen and insufficient maturity (R-0 < 0.45%), re spectively. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .