Since the mid-1980s, Texaco has used the transmittance color index (TCI) of amorphous kerogen as an indicator of kerogen thermal maturation. The technique simply involves the direct measurement of a white-light spectrum as it is transmitted through a particle of amorphous organic matter (AOM). In brief, TCI values are obtained by the analysis of white light originating from a 100-W 6-V tungsten lamp attached to a photometric microscope. The assignment of particular TCI values is based on the increasing curvature of spectra with increasing maturity. TCI curves shift from an average wavelength around 580 nm for samples of immature, amorphous kerogen (i.e., material with a mean, random vitrinite reflectance of about 0.20%) to about 660 nm for samples containing very dark brown to some black particulate material (i.e., kerogen with a mean, random vitrinite reflectance of about 2.15%). The range of TCI values covers all zones of petroleum generation and preservation. In our opinion, TCI can provide as accurate a basis for maturation interpretations as is available from vitrinite reflectance (or from the mean random reflectance of some zooclasts, such as graptolites and chitinozoans), or the widely used visual estimate the thermal alteration index (TAI) or the similarly determined conodont color index (CAI). TCI is probably most useful, however, in those situations where the rocks to be examined have not yet reached the semianthricite coalification stage (approximate to 2.0% vitrinite reflectance). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.