Good afternoon, BR.

I have not searched for a few years now, but at the time of Bug Tussle, Cornell's Gold was it. In your posted PDF reference, and on page 8, McGowan cites Gold in his "list" of variants (note the plural) -- but no one else. I was just wondering what you might know, as to whether Gold (who is really getting on in years) was the end-all to Oil (AKA geochemically produced hydrocarbons) on Mars, or is he merely one of many, but also the man with the most credentials?

Anyway, the good ponts seem to be:
* On Earth, sedimentation and metamorphosis have been continuous. Few primordial rocks survive, e.g. Isua rocks in Greenland.

* Any ancient hydrocarbon deposits on Earth would have buried at great depth and pressure cooked into natural gas.

* On Mars, ancient rocks, e.g. 3.8 billion years old, appear to survive near surface. An ancient oil deposit may never have been buried at sufficient depth to convert to natural gas.

* Martian volcanoes may have provided caprocks to prevent outgassing of gas fields.

Cheers,
Dan