The story I heard was neither moss nor dinos, the origin of oil is ooze, compressed marine sediments thick with organics that have settled down in shallow seas, and unable to decompose fully, created an anerobic sludge that eventually was cooked into oil by being buried and compressed.
One thing I do know, oil is rearely found where it was formed. It is transported by geological processes and eventually collects in traps where we drill for it. One of the geochemists I worked with at Gulf thought it was a geo-electrical process which formed it, which is why it was so often found in association with brines and salt domes. Low voltage currents in the brines, he felt, helped form the stuff. He was able to demonstrate this in the laboratory, but, of course, that don't mean it happens that way in the real world.
Current Events » in reply to Well to be fair, its not just decaying dinosaurs...
Is there a geologist in the house?
The whole thread (23 posts)
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- re: Wonderful research about "Peak Oil"
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