ABSTRACT
The correlation of crude oils and source rocks using sterane and triterpane biomarkers is often performed by visual comparison of chromatograms from gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. It has been improved by a simple mathematical mean square difference (m.s.d.) analysis. The m.s.d. is used to determine the relationship between two curves in a coordinate in mathematics. As demonstrated here the method adds precision and accuracy in evaluating relative correlation strengths when several correlation sets are being compared. It is easy to accomplish and utilize.
