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Nanoscale Molecular Composition of Solid Bitumen from the Eagle Ford Group Across a Natural Thermal Maturity Gradient

Metadata Updated: January 20, 2026

Solid bitumen is a petrographically-defined secondary organic matter residue produced during petroleum generation and subsequent oil transformation. The presence of solid bitumen impacts many shale reservoir properties including porosity, permeability, and hydrocarbon generation and storage, amongst others. Furthermore, solid bitumen reflectance is an important parameter for assessing the thermal maturity of formations with little to no vitrinite. While the molecular composition of solid bitumen will strongly impact associated parameters such as the development of organic matter porosity, hydrocarbon generation, and optical reflectance, assessing the molecular composition of solid bitumen in situ within shale reservoirs can be challenged by small grain sizes (often 1 m in diameter) and the inherent heterogeneity of shale formations. Here we employ the recently developed atomic force microscopy-based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) to investigate solid bitumen molecular composition in situ within shale samples from the Late Cretaceous Eagle Ford Group possessing Type II-S kerogen that span a natural thermal maturity gradient from early oil-generation to the dry gas window. The application of AFM-IR allows for the rapid collection of thousands of measurements with ~50 nm resolution from the interrogated solid bitumen grains. Our results indicate that: (i) solid bitumen from the lower Eagle Ford displays both intra- and intergranular molecular variation, (ii) this molecular variation tends to, but not universally, decrease with an increase in thermal maturity, and (iii) the solid bitumen composition between samples, from an atomic ratio perspective, is more similar than analysis of kerogen isolates would indicate. These findings are discussed with perspective toward understanding the impact of thermal stress on the composition of secondary organic matter within the Eagle Ford Shale and highlight the growing awareness that organic matter heterogeneity within petroliferous mudrocks extends down to the nanoscale regime.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date January 12, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 20, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 12, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 20, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_5e8e101582cee42d13479c25
Data Last Modified 2020-08-19T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Datagov Dedupe Retained 20260120174654
Harvest Object Id f7be0fdd-fce4-4b85-824a-c62a5ed4293b
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
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Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 589c86798e60909e2eba0e8562f164ba76c9b2b780329be2744c22f6638ff364
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