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USGS · 70189571

Oil Shale

Justin E. Birdwell
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Abstract

Oil shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks formed in many different depositional environments (terrestrial, lacustrine, marine) containing large quantities of thermally immature organic matter in the forms of kerogen and bitumen. If defined from an economic standpoint, a rock containing a sufficient concentration of oil-prone kerogen to generate economic quantities of synthetic crude oil upon heating to high temperatures (350–600 °C) in the absence of oxygen (pyrolysis) can be considered an oil shale.

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Justin E. Birdwell. 2017-06-14. Oil Shale. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39193-9_181-1

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