Vitrinite recycling: diagnostic criteria and reflectance changes during weathering and reburial

Two main diagnostic criteria appear particularly useful to identify indigenous and recycled vitrinite particles: the first is the clear genetic relationship between telinite and collotelinite; the second is the presence of pyrite framboid inclusions in indigenous vitrinite. The pyrite-vitrinite association illustrates the relationship between sulphate reduction, pyritisation, and in situ organic matter transformation through gelification process. However, application of both diagnostic criteria requires some additional information about depositional conditions (i.e., anoxicity) and thermal maturity of the studied samples. Weathering has no or only very limited effect on vitrinite reflectance. During their new burial history, recycled vitrinites follow a reflectance evolution path close to that of inertinites and thus appear as transitional materials between vitrinite and inertinite macerals. Consistently, this behaviour implies that recycled vitrinite reflectance changes during burial diagenesis do not solely depend on their chemical composition but, most probably too, on combined chemical and structural changes inherited from their past burial history and from the impact of weathering during their recycling stage.