Abstract excerpts: "Thermal cracking of kerogens and bitumens is widely accepted as the major source of natural gas (thermal gas). ... Here we report gas generation under anoxic helium flow at temperatures 300° below thermal cracking temperatures. Gas is generated discontinuously, in distinct aperiodic episodes of near equal intensity. ... Our results indicate two paths to gas, a high-temperature thermal path, and a low-temperature catalytic path proceeding 300° below the thermal path. It redefines the time-temperature dimensions of gas habitats and opens the possibility of gas generation at subsurface temperatures previously thought impossible."
Awards
AAPG
(American Association of Petroleum Geologists) Award of Excellence “Top
10” Oral Presentation
Awardedfor Mango and Jarvie presentation of “Catalytic
Gas in Deltaic Basins” at the Annual Convention in Long Beach,
California in April 2007.
Geochemical Society awarded Dr. Mango’s 1990 publication “Best Paper Award” for the most outstanding publication in organic geochemistry for that year.
"The origin of light hydrocarbons in petroleum: A kinetic test of the steady-state catalytic hypothesis" GCA 54 (1990), 1315-1323
