[Galatians513]

Question:

How does a 'fossil fuel' end up 30,000 feet underground?

Just curious...

[Cincinatus]

How does a 'fossil fuel' end up 30,000 feet underground?

The same way ancient sea-beds get pushed up over 20,000 feet high in folded mountain belts -- large-scale movements of the Earth's crust. Plates collide; sometimes they ride up over each other (forming fold mountains) and sometimes they slide beneath each other (creating trenches, like the Marianas in the Pacific). Both create opportunities for rock beds to be buried or thrust up.

[DoctorMichael]

Either successive layers of soil were placed over it and compressed over time or there was folding of the earth that buried the material that gave rise to the oil. I'm not a Geologist, but those are off the top of my head.

[JmyBryan]

Look up Thomas Gold for an alternative theory of petroleum origins. I think his book's name is The Deep Hot Biosphere.

[slimer]

How does a 'fossil fuel' end up 30,000 feet underground?

A.) It evolved
B.) It sunk
C.) God put it there
D.) Nobody really knows the answer.