Hidden Secrets in Tiny Niches: From Jurassic Park to Fluid Inclusions.

People that have seen the science-fiction film Jurassic Park must still remember that in the film, the eccentric billionaire created a theme park populated with dinosaurs cloned from the DNA extracted from mosquitoes preserved in prehistoric amber(Fig. 1 ). 

Fig.1. In the science-fiction film Jurassic Park, scientists  extracted the dinosaur DNA from prehistoric amber, and then cloned dinosaurs in modern world.


Similar with extracting the dinosaur DNA from amber, geologist find out they can also extracting the paleotemperature from fluid inclusions(Fig. 2 ) preserved in the precipitated mineral crystals!

Fig. 2 These are fluid inclusions in calcite crystals in Tarim basin, NW China. The paleogeofluid was trapped in the crystals ,thus provides geologists a great opportunity to extract temperature information from them.

In the remote NW China, petroleum geologist found intense paleogeofluid activities in the old rocks. To figue out the paleotemperature of these fluid flows is significant to the petroleum exploration there.

Fig.3 The measuring process of melting and homogenization temperatures of fluid inclusions. The measured homogenization temperature represents the simultaneous temperature of the fluids at that time. With the measured melting temperatures we can calculate the salinity of the fluids.

Using the cooling and heating stage, we first freeze the fluid inclusions into a supercooled status, and then slowly warm them until the gas bubble in the  fluid inclusions disappear. At that time, the gas and the liquid phases homogenize into one phase. The temperature of this disappearing point is just the very paleotemperature of these fluid flows that traped in the  fluid inclusions (Fig.3). Finally, we geologists succeed to get the temperature information! With this important information, it will be easier for the petroleum geologists to find out more oil!