Published August 2020, Pg. 4-13

Section: Geology and geophysics

UOT: 551.14:550.83

DOI: 10.37474/0365-8554/2020-8-4-13

Carbonic nanostructures in subsurface rocks: problem review Part I. Fullerenes

M.Ya. Maharramova

I.S. Guliyev

A.B. Huseynov

E.B. Zeynalov

The paper deals with the review of the results of detection and analysis of fullerenes in natural objects. The fullerenes (generally, buckminsterfullerenes С60) were revealed in hard subsurface rocks and sedimentary deposits of Cretaceous-Paleogene, Perm and Pre-Cambrian stages of the Earth. The map of the Earth regions of fullerene exploration and the data on fullerene composition in the rocks is provided as well. The concepts of both biogenic and abiogenic fullerene origin are known. In the first case, the process of slow metamorphization of putrid mud and terrestrial crop took place under the impact of compressing and temperature, as a result of which various allotrope compounds of hydrocarbon dispersed in the mineral matrix were formed and accumulated. In the second case, the formation of fullerenes took place due to the shocking impact during thunderbolt or fireballs (Sudbury meteorite, carbonic chondritic meteorites) strikes on the rocks of earth surface, as well as global forest fires. For reliable fullerene identification in the samples of sedimentary and subsurface rocks should be used only physical-chemical methods of high definitions, such as laser desorption / ionization and electric-shocking mass-spectrometry. In the natural objects is predominantly revealed fullerene С60.Other types of fullerenes - C70, C74, C78, C84 and C100 are identified more rarely. A hypothesis on the composition of carbonic nanostructures in the rocks of mud volcanoes in the aspect of obtained information is developed.