Was going to post this on greenhouse thread a couple of weeks ago but I think you all may be interested in a different theory
OK, Now for something completely different. Everybody remembers something about how hydrocarbons and coal were formed. In the case of coal, it was formed in the huge floating swamps of the carboniferous period about 1700 million years ago. Most all of the coal is found fairly shallow deposits down to 1km. This was about the time we were still part of Antartica. Oil was produced from an earlier time period from 1700 million years ago to 3.5 billion years ago mostly marine from zooplankton and phytoplankton literally falling in a blizzard on the floor of the shallow oceans of that time. Most of these deposits are now about 4miles down from the present surface and are a fluke of reservoirs forming in sandstones with some sort of permeable cap to stop the stuff evaporating away. Now to introduce you to Thomas Gold and a few Russian scientist In the case of Thomas Gold his theory is that ALL hydrocarbons are produced from geological activity from at least 100km down in the mantle. Pressures of at least 30Kbar and 1500C required to produce heavy hydrocarbon chains. He puts a good explanation to this theory. Explaining why hydrocarbons are found all thru the solar system. Why Titan and Neptune have atmospheres of methane
For me this explains why we find fields in tectonically active areas. Saudi lies near a rift. New Guinea is still going UP Indonesia (there was a theory that Indonesia and Borneo's oil was escaping from the Middle East(juggy stories) Indonesia is certainly not very stable. Where by contrast Australia's oil fields where more predominantly gas /condensate fields produced from higher temperatures and found in sedimentary basins from a similar age. Gold's theory is that in effect life on this planet originated from organic material from within the earths crust not from above it AND hydrocarbons are still being produced. I have often wondered about the processes required for a FINITE source like the Middle East to produce a million barrels a day or better of oil for the last forty years or so.??????
To find out more, start up Google and search "Origin of Hydrocarbons" and read on. Would be interesting to see what the flat earth soc¡..ER greens have to say about that!
Regards
Mark