title: Aliphatic hydrocarbons as biological markers in 250-million-year-old rock salt deposits near Kassel, West Germany.
abstract: Organic matter sedimented within salt deposits from the Carboniferous Perm epoch has been investigated for hydrocarbons by gas-liquid-chromatography, mass spectrometry, and spectropolarimetry. Main constituents were made of aliphatic and olefinic hydrocarbons which retained a considerable part of their optical activity thus resisting complete racemization over 250 mio years.
mesh_terms: D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D005860:Germany, West; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D011048:Polarography; D012965:Sodium Chloride
chemical_list: D006838:Hydrocarbons; D012965:Sodium Chloride