View previous topic :: View next topic |
Ishmael
In: Toronto
|
|
|
|
Chad wrote: | Maybe the process only works at the bottom of oceans where the pressure keeps the Natural Gas in liquid form. |
Did someone just shout "Bingo"?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
Don't forget that THOBR pointed out that oil occurs randomly in ten per cent of the earth's (upper) crust. However this might be an artefact of exploration ie it might not be produced in the (very deepest) oceanic bottoms since according to SLOT theory these areas do not reach the active zone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ishmael
In: Toronto
|
|
|
|
Mick Harper wrote: | Don't forget that THOBR pointed out that oil occurs randomly in ten per cent of the earth's (upper) crust. |
I've not forgotten, but I have recently become persuaded that the distribution is far from random. Everywhere it seems oil is associated with former ocean floor. If oil is renewable and has its origins within the Earth, why do we seem to find it only in recent sea floor (not ancient! Mountains were once sea-floor too but no oil in 'em).
However this might be an artefact of exploration ie it might not be produced in the (very deepest) oceanic bottoms since according to SLOT theory these areas do not reach the active zone. |
You lost me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
|
|
|
|
but I have recently become persuaded that the distribution is far from random. |
I slightly mispoke. It is not that oil is necessarily random but that the oil industry doesn't know the cause so relies on randomly finding it (one in ten gushers pays for the nine failures). However, the regular ten per cent success rate means that whatever the cause, it must be remarkably widespread. Sand'n'SLOT actually rather fits this particular bill.
The very deepest ocean bottoms never become uncovered by the random re-distribution of land after the BIG SLOT event. But on the other hand, the very deepest ocean bottoms have never been searched for oil. In fact, one might say that the deepest oceans are now the only places in the world where oil has not been found and are the only places in the world not accessible to SLOT. Makes it significant.
Rocky, the salmon have been falling all round Britain and Britain is surrounded by oil (or gas) exploration. Not so the Northern Pacific.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chad
In: Ramsbottom
|
|
|
|
Ishmael wrote: | Now.... on to the origin of oil itself.
My working hypothesis:
Algae |
Err... isn't that what I said?
Chad (if I remember correctly) wrote: | Maybe the gas breaks down dead algae and combines with it to produce the heavier hydrocarbons. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ishmael
In: Toronto
|
|
|
|
Chad wrote: | Err... isn't that what I said? |
Nope. Though your hypothesis may prove correct in the end. We shall see.
Here's the process I imagine.
Oil is consumed by bacteria but only at shallow depth. In the deepest parts of the ocean, there is no life on the sea floor capable of breaking down oil.
Algae float on the surface of the water. But here's the key: They float on the water's surface far from shore -- directly over-top the ocean's greatest depths. Their waste is what floats to the sea-floor and is eventually transformed into petroleum.
If this scenario is correct (and I'm already beginning to doubt it) it means that oil is not a product of the earth's interior. It would however explain the apparent link between ancient sea floor and modern oil deposits.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ishmael
In: Toronto
|
|
|
|
Case Closed.
...a comprehensive new study says that in some of the most heavily fished areas of the Gulf of Mexico, various forms of sea life, from shrimp to sharks, have seen their populations triple since before the spill. Some species...did even better.
-- Sea Life Flourishes in the Gulf
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ishmael
In: Toronto
|
|
|
|
Yet the paradigm persists.
The growth of the fish population is not occurring because oil is good for fish. Rather, it is occurring because fishing is bad for fish. When fishing was banned for months during the spill, the Gulf of Mexico experienced an unprecedented marine renaissance that overwhelmed any negative environmental consequences the oil may have had, researchers say.
-- Sea Life Flourishes in the Gulf |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Boreades
In: finity and beyond
|
|
|
|
All of us who went to school in the UK or US will have been told that oil was created as a by-product of dead marine life. So there is a limit to how deep you can drill through sedimentary layers with dead marine life.
And yet, some of the people who have been finding the most oil are the ones that are drilling to much greater depths and work from a fundamentally different model. See adiabatic oil.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|