57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy study of organic rich sediments (source rocks) from test well CT-1, Chinnewala structure of Jaisalmer basin, India

57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopic study was carried out on the organic rich sedimentary samples collected at different depth intervals from newly drilled test well Chinnewala Tibba-1 (CT-1) located in Jaisalmer Petroliferous basin India. It is found that iron is mainly distributed in high spin Fe3+ and Fe2+ state in clay minerals. The plot of Fe2+/(Fe2+ + Fe3+) indicates the presence of poor redox conditions in the samples. Results obtained are also compared with those already reported in the literature. This comparison shows that there may exist a correlation between prospecting of the basin, the redox environment in sediments and the nature of iron bearing minerals distributed in the sedimentary sequence