September 2, 2009

Oil in the Gulf

Ever wonder how a giant oil deposit ever found itself seven miles down underneath the Gulf of Mexico?  We're taught, of course, that oil is formed from the decay of microscopic plants and animals from ancient swamps.  The tiny dead life is trapped in sediments and then cooked under the pressure and heat of the Earth.  As the pressure and temperature increase, natural gas is formed out of the oil  But then again, scientists also tell us that the vast oceans of oil and natural gas on the moon Titan, orbiting around Saturn, were certainly not formed from the decay of tiny prehistoric animals, but rather abiotically (without life).

This discussion pretty much covers the whole topic and comes down on the side of oil on Earth having come from from life... but it seems to me that abiotic oil is a more simple explanation for all oil, found almost anywhere in the universe.

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