Pelagite of East Pacific Ocean as a low-price, very high reserve photocatalyst, has been successfully used for the first time to realize total degradation and decoloration of methyl orange within 120 min through photocatalysis. The photocatalysis and degradation performance of pelagite for methyl orange under the effect of various factors has been studied. Results show that pelagite has satisfactory photocatalysis effect in degradation of organic compounds. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.