HULA VALLEY PEAT

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Abstract
In the Hula Valley, Israel, four layers of peat of Middle Pleistocene to Holocene age, interbedded with limnic clays and marls, are found above 300-m depth. The main detrital minerals are kaolinite, montmorillonite, and illite. Average elemental values of organic matter of dry peat are: C, 15–29 percent; H, 1.8–3 percent; N, 0.8–1.2 percent; S, 2.3–5 percent. The ash content (on dry basis) is 36–59 percent. The average calorific value ranges from 1670 to 3400 cal/g. Organic constitutents isolated from the upper layer (Peat Horizon One) include: C12 to C26 fatty acids, β-sitosterol, β-sitostanol, friedelin and friedelanol, ceryl alcohol, a series of hydrocarbons, among them polycyclic hydrocarbon, perylene, 13 amino acids and a series of polysaccharides of molecular weight in the range of 40,000. A detailed quantitative investigation of the distribution with depth in the top peat layer of the humic, fulvic, and hymatomelanic acids, as well as of the β-humus and humin, showed humin to be the dominant fraction of the organic matter. Its amount increases from 62 percent of the organic mater (by weight) at the surface to 70–90 percent at 2-m depth. The fulvic acid and polysaccharides show rapid decrease with depth, accompanied by concomitant increase in the β-humus. The humic acid increases with depth. Analysis of the peat organic fractions for carbon and hydrogen stable isotopes shows that with depth the difference in δC13 between the humic and fulvic acids disappears and the δC13 stabilizes at around −18 parts per thousand. The isotope data indicate the dynamic nature of the fulvic acid in the peat. The δD values were around −60 parts per thousand, but the data are too meager for any firm conclusion.

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