S. Tabasi - Faculty of Industry and Mining, Sistan and Baluchestan University, Zahedan, Iran
M. Kurdi - Department of Mining and Metallurgy Engineering, Amirkabir University of technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran
M. Bahrammanesh - Geological survey of Iran, Tehran, Iran

The objective of this work was to investigate the potential of three different kinds of Iranian peat and swamp soils as sources of organic matter (OM) in the Golestan Province, Northern Iran. Comparison of the peats was done in terms of the degree of humification on the von Post scale. Moreover, the X-ray fluorescence, X-Ray Diffractometry, and Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) techniques were used to investigate their mineralogical and geochemical properties. Also a method was tested for the sequential extraction of OM from Suteh peat, in which the following organic solvents were utilised in sequence: (I) ethyl ether, (II) ethanol, (III) 1,4-dioxane, and (IV) n-hexane; each extract was analysed by FT-IR spectroscopy, and the residue was used in the next phase. The results obtained indicated that OMOM extracted during each step was different; nevertheless, some spectral features such as those attributable to lignin, carbohydrate, phenol, wax, and fats were common to all phases. Major absorbance spectra were related to specific extraction steps, namely polysaccharide, proteins, alkyne, humic acids, esters, aldehydes, and cellulose.

FT-IR Spectroscopy, Histosols, Mineralogy, Organic Soil, Peatland, Sequential Extraction