Unless you drill for oil to remove the subterranean pressure by getting the oil underneath, it will eventually seep up to the top and pollute your surface ground naturally.
Thus, bans on oil drilling are environmentally harmful.
Posted on 11/09/2004 2:36:57 PM PST by blam
Nov. 8, 2004, 10:57PM
Scientists wrap up old mystery
Mummies' tar provides a link to ancient trade routes
By ERIC BERGER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES
Historians have long known that Egyptians used tar to
seal mummies during the embalming process.
What wasn't known until now is where the tar came from. Thanks to work by some Texas geochemists, however, scientists are now answering this millennia-old mystery.
The Middle East is, of course, littered with natural oil seeps, in which tar and other black deposits bubble up from oil beneath the surface.
Within each oil seep, however, the tar has a particular signature, which scientists can identify by measuring the various amounts of thousands of different hydrocarbons. The ratio of hydrocarbons is virtually the same for an entire seep.
"It's very much like a fingerprint," said Chuck Kennicutt, an oceanographer and geochemist at Texas A&M University.
By analyzing the tar from oil seeps near the Suez Canal, Kennicutt and other team members discovered that the tar for some mummies came from nearby while others came from hundreds of miles away.
The Texans, who were assisted by colleagues at the University of Alexandria in Egypt, will publish their findings in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Geoarchaeology.
By identifying the tar, Kennicutt said, it is possible to confirm that some modern trade routes were in existence more than 3,000 years ago. And by examining more tar sites and more relics, scientists should gain an even greater understanding of historic trade routes.
"It hasn't been clear how active trade routes were in the past," Kennicutt said. "But we're finding that trade was actually quite extensive. A lot of times we may think that, in modern times, we're the first ones to do something. But often our activities have roots far back in history."
Ancient people, at least as far back as the Sumerians, used tar for all types of applications. It was mixed with sand and used as mortar for bricks, to caulk ships and to waterproof baskets and mats.
Studying tar from these applications might even help historians understand the extent to which Sumerians and Egyptians traded.
Closer to home, Kennicutt says native Americans along the Texas Gulf Coast also employed the watersealing properties of tar as far back as 800 or 900 years. The Indians used the substance to coat canoes and boats.
The ancient mummification process took 70 days:
First: All internal parts that might decay rapidly were removed, except for the heart, because it was believed to be the center of a person's being and intelligence.
Next: The embalmers then removed all moisture from the body by covering it with natron, a type of salt that has great drying properties, and by placing additional natron packets inside.
Finally: Each mummy would be wrapped in hundreds of yards of linen. At several stages, the form was coated with warm resin and the wrapping resumed. The priests wrapped the final cloth in place and secured it with linen strips. The mummy was complete. Source: Smithsonian Institution
GGG Ping.
Chirac wants to use "french perfumed" black tar on Arafat's body before he is buried...
Time to start wrapping Yassir.
ping.
Unless you drill for oil to remove the subterranean pressure by getting the oil underneath, it will eventually seep up to the top and pollute your surface ground naturally.
Thus, bans on oil drilling are environmentally harmful.
Joel Chandler Harris ping!
|
"...and up through the ground come a bubblin' crude.
Oil, that is...
Black gold...
Texas tea.."
Finally, the connection between ancient Egypt and Jed Clampett!
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
I also understand that the term Mummy was derived from something to do with a substance by a similar name. Whatever, I am sure there is a scholar here that will edumakate us.
Texans have the best understanding of petroleum and derivatives in the Middle East?
Heh heh heh heh.....
Some of these tarry seeps had been ignited through natural and accidental causes and burned for many years. They can cause heat and smoke and sometimes a visible glow to emanate from the earth, and are thought to have inspired the concept of "Hell" as a very hot nether region in the world of the afterlife.
Little off topic, but do any Freepers know how many Fossils of dead animals it takes to produce a barrel of oil? I'm asking this because I find it very hard to believe that SO damn many animals only died in certain areas of the world...like NONE died in Israel or Washington. The common theme sees to me to be SAND....desert and sea. Flame away!
I'd flame ya, but I'm out of flammables.
Fossil Fuels Made without Fossils
Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
9/13/2004 5:01 PM | Gabe Romain
Posted on 10/28/2004 10:55:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1261047/posts
I hope that means I'm not NUTS....are these reliable people or just hacks like me? Do you think Oil could come from something other than dead animals?
Dead plants. Dead plankton. There is/was a lot more of those than dead animals. The trouble is that drawings of dead plankton falling to the sea floor are just not as dramatic as dead animals, especially for children's books.
When Pixar makes the dead plankton movie, it will become wildly popular.
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I remember reading someplace that the Israelites would put tar across the top of their "Down with Pharoah!" signs to prevent them from being stolen.