'Fossil fuel' theory takes hit with NASA finding

worldnetdaily ^ | December 1, 2005

[seastay]

New study shows methane on Saturn's moon Titan not biological NASA scientists are about to publish conclusive studies showing abundant methane of a non-biologic nature is found on Saturn's giant moon Titan, a finding that validates a new book's contention that oil is not a fossil fuel.

"We have determined that Titan's methane is not of biologic origin," reports Hasso Niemann of the Goddard Space Flight Center, a principal NASA investigator responsible for the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer aboard the Cassini-Huygens probe that landed on Titan Jan. 14. Niemann concludes the methane "must be replenished by geologic processes on Titan, perhaps venting from a supply in the interior that could have been trapped there as the moon formed."

The studies announced by NASA yesterday will be reported in the Dec. 8 issue of the scientific journal Nature.

"This finding confirms one of the key arguments in 'Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil,'" claims co-author Jerome R. Corsi. "We argue that oil and natural gas are abiotic products, not 'fossil fuels' that are biologically created by the debris of dead dinosaurs and ancient forests."

Methane has been synthetically created in the laboratory, Corsi points out, "and now NASA confirms that abiotic methane is abundantly found on Titan."

The realization that hydrocarbons are produced inorganically throughout our solar system was a key insight that led Cornell University astronomer Thomas Gold to write his 1998 book, "The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels." Gold wrote:

It would be surprising indeed if the earth had obtained its hydrocarbons only from a source that biology had taken from another carbon-bearing gas – carbon dioxide – which would have been collected from the atmosphere by photo-synthesizing organisms for manufacture into carbohydrates and then somehow reworked by geology into hydrocarbons. All this, while the planetary bodies bereft of surface life would have received their hydrocarbon gifts by purely abiogenic causes. Gold wryly noted that he was sure there had not been any "big stagnant swamps on Titan" to produce the biological debris that conventionally trained geologists think was required on Earth to produce oil and natural gas as a "fossil fuel."

"If petroleum and natural gas are abiotic as we maintain in 'Black Gold Stranglehold,'" Corsi commented, "then the 'peak oil' fear that we are going to run out of oil may have been based on a giant misconception."

Paradigms in science change slowly and with great resistance, he noted, "But NASA has given us today incontrovertible evidence that Titan has abundant inorganic methane."

"If the scientists have ruled out that biological processes created methane on Titan, why do petro-geologists still argue that natural gas on Earth is of biological origin?" Corsi asked.

[beaver fever]

"This is good news. It means oil is a renewable resource.

I'll keep checking my back 40."

It doesn't matter dick how methane is produced on Titan.

It does matter how that it is produced on Earth and we are just beginning to understand that process.

Even at that, methane may not be capable of being economically extracted in offshore underwater environments on the Earth.

Mining methane on Titan is science fiction and economically laughable.

[ARCADIA]

without question we are burning it much faster than it is being created, if indeed it is being created.

The sun generates plenty of energy every day to keep us going until extinction. Enough of this is being stored to provide us with usable fuel sources; oil is just one of an infinite number of chemical alternatives. We can change to something else whenever we want to; it is just a question of making a transition. One of these days we are going to get bored with the 100-year-old piston put-put and develop something totally new with alot more Zoom!

[Strategerist]

Calling it fossil fuel always has sounded like a fairy tale fabricated by idiots.

You just adequately described the author of this piece in WingNutDaily, actually.

This is now the THIRD article where this blithering idiot, Corsi, has claimed that the "fossil fuel" theory of petroleum holds that is "created by the debris of dead dinosaurs and ancient forests."

THAT IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE.

Here you have a moron writing articles about a subject he doesn't have the SLIGHEST clue about.

The accepted theory of oil formation by virtually all petroleum geologists is that it's formed by dead microscopic marine and lake plankton. Dinosaurs have nothing to do with it (this stupid myth is a result of a some widely-seen supposedly educational cartoons) and land forests form coal, not oil.

So this guy is arguing against a theory, and his only knowledge of that theory is cartoons. Pathetic.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

The abiotic theory has been around for decades. When I worked in the oil patch before retiring over a decade ago. it was heresy to even breach the subject.

[ARCADIA]

Mining methane on Titan is science fiction and economically laughable.

So were the flying machine, steam power, electricity, and million other technological advances.

[JasonC]

Horsefeathers. Nobody has any idea how fast it is being created. And measured reserves have never gone down, since records have been kept.

[Alter Kaker]

Nobody has any idea how fast it is being created.

If it is being created, which is still just a hypothesis, nobody has ever observed it. Given that, don't you think it's a little irresponsible to think that it's a renewable resource?

[JasonC]

Nobody is talking about mining it there, the point is something created it there and that something was not life, since there is no life on Titan. Whatever that something is (geological processes being the leading candidate), probably operates elsewhere too, including here.

[JasonC]

Of course it has been created, the universe did not start with big hunks of oil floating around. The only question is the input processes and rates. There is no evidence it is a finite resource, and no reason to believe it is.

[mmercier]

Oil on earth may have fallen from space. I tend to believe this theory as it explains vast areas of tar sands all over the planet.

I have read a more interesting theory on the possibility that oil is produced in the outer earth core and forced upward over time. If this is the case then once depleted subterranean oil oceans may be refilling on their own.

In any case if we could mine Titan for high grade unleaded that would be a good start.

[sully777]

I'll be the first

I know they found gas in\on Saturn but have they found gas in\on Uranus yet? We have a right to know!

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

No, what it means is look for it in places where declared it was impossible to find oil in.

The ancient shallow seas theory would be out the window. At present, if exploratory drilling cores show no ancient seas sedimentary rock, forgedbodit.

[gogogodzilla]

OMG! Gas coming from Uranus?

The horror... the horror!

[beaver fever]

There are massive gas methane deposits in off all the continental tectonic margins on earth and we are just beginning to understand how they are formed.

There is an international effort to understand these deposits and come up with a possible model for extraction. (Google IODP , Methane Hydrates)

Rule number one in the resource industry: if it can't be done economically on earth then it can't be done economically anywhere else.

[mmercier]

>> the point is something created it there and that something was not life

Oil did not come from decomposing swamps, that much now we (think) believe.

Velikovsky was I think vindicated on this point in the 80's when oil was found in a granite deposit in Finland where no primordial vegetation was possible.

I just hope the first probe on Titan does not have a short circuit, then we will have a baby star burning off for a decade.

[Dog Gone]

Oil on earth may have fallen from space. I tend to believe this theory as it explains vast areas of tar sands all over the planet.

I think trees fell from space, because I see them everywhere!

[Holdek]

Wow I had no idea Jerome Corsi was a petroleum engineer! I also didn't know that the oil fields were refilling! But, since he knows what he's talking about, I guess I should

All those oil pumps that have gone dry are probably overflowing by now. Let's all go look!

[DustyMoment]

The government of New Zealand is deeply disappointed - they can't tax farmers for their cows farting anymore.

[sully777]

I had to do it. If not me, a more irresponsible clown would have stepped in.

[dangerdoc]

The oil companies make money refining and moving petroleum. Their business model would do just fine with biofuels if they are cost competitive with petroleum.