[Dallas59]

If bacteria evolved and then died out on Mars, could that bacteria have decayed to produce oil or natural gas?

[capitan_refugio]

Decay is a biological process, in and of itself. I suppose, once organic material has been subjected to thermogenesis (the natural conversion of organic material into oil, natural gas, tar, coal, etc), it is possible there might be some traces remaining. It is an intriguing question.

Although methane (the simplest of the hydrocarbon fases) is an relatively abundant gas in the solar system, most methane on Earth comes from biogenic sources. Some, small amount, probably comes from the degassing of the mantle (abiogenic methane). Biogenic methane on Mars would be quite a discovery.

On Earth, active tectonic processes are the mechanism behind thermogensis (deposition, preservation, burial, heating, biochemical conversion). I suspect Mars may be a nearly "dead" planet when it comes to tectonism; so thermogensis would be arrested.

[null and void]

If bacteria evolved and then died out on Mars, could that bacteria have decayed to produce oil or natural gas?

AWL! We struck AWL!!