WE WILL PERFORM SEQUENTIAL HYDROPYROLYSIS TO RELEASE BOUND BIOMARKERS; AND CHARACTERIZE AND QUANTIFY THE BIOMARKER PRODUCTS. A COMBINATION OF SLOW HEATING RATE (8C/MIN) HIGH HYDROGEN GAS PRESSURE (15 MPA) AND A DISPERSED SULFIDED MOLYBDENUM CATALYST IS THE BEST HYPY REGIME FOR ACHIEVING HIGH CONVERSIONS OF IMOM TO SOLUBLE PRODUCTS WHILE MINIMIZING STRUCTURAL AND STEREOCHEMICAL REARRANGEMENTS IN BIOMARKER HYDROCARBONS RELEASED (LOVE 1997; 2005). THE METHOD IS RAPID (APPROX. 1 HOUR PER RUN) AND GENERATES HIGH YIELDS OF HYDROCARBON PRODUCTS THAT ARE READILY ANALYSABLE BY THE LATEST GC-MS METHODS. THIS ALLOWS DIRECT COMPARISON WITH BIOMARKER HYDROCARBONS IN THE GEOLOGIC RECORD. SINCE HYPY IS A TEMPERATURE-PROGRAMMED PYROLYSIS TECHNIQUE WE CAN TERMINATE EXPERIMENTS AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES TO SELECT FOR DIFFERENT BINDING STRENGTHS OF MOLECULES. ESTER AND WEAK SULFIDIC LINKAGES IN RECENT SEDIMENTS BREAK BY 320-340C (FARRIMOND 2003) WHILE CLEAVAGE OF STRONG CARBON-CARBON AND CARBON-OXYGEN BONDS OCCURS MAINLY IN THE RANGE 350-520C. THUS WE CHOOSE 340C AS THE CUT-OFF TEMPERATURE IN A SCHEME TO DISTINGUISH WEAK (C-S ESTER) FROM STRONGER (C-O AND C-C) BONDS. PREVIOUS WORK USING SOLD-PHASE MODEL SUBSTRATES INDICATED THAT THE MORE STABLE CO AND C-C LINKAGES IN MACROMOLECULES LIKELY REMAIN LARGELY INTACT UNDER STANDARD HYPY CONDITIONS AT 340C AND BELOW (LAFFERTY 1993; ISMAIL 1995). SEQUENTIAL HYPY TREATMENTS ALLOW US TO ASSESS THE MODE AND EXTENT OF BINDING OF DIFFERENT BIOMARKER SPECIES WITHIN ORGANIC MACROMOLECULES.