Posted on 12/02/2005 7:00:55 PM PST by 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.
I don't think ever in the time I've been on FR I've seen people have a more difficult time understanding a simple concept.
There's some zooplankton (animal plankton) in petroleum, but it's mostly phytoplankton.
Just to review, plankton is little tiny stuff just floating around in the ocean (and in lakes.)
Phytoplankton lives off sunlight, absorbs some minerals from the water; doesn't eat anything, doesn't feed on dead dinosaurs. And it isn't bacteria. Much of it is diatoms.
It dies, drifts to the bottom of the sea or lake, gets buried, and in X million years, you have petroleum.
No land plants involved.
No dead land or sea large animals involved.
If you were to weigh everything, plant or animal, living on earth, phytoplankton would be the majority of it. They exist in unbelievable numbers.
I think the problem is that people literally don't know what plankton is and are unaware of it.
Anyway, the point, as always, is this clown Corsi is arguing against a non-existent theory based literally on some bad cartoons showing dinosaurs forming oil.
Reserves, proven or otherwise, are just a tally of oil which has been discovered or is inferred to exist within an area where oil has been discovered.
We keep drilling more wells, so we find more oil, so reserves have been keeping up with demand and usage.
At some point, the amount of oil found will not keep up with the amount being used (then prices will really go up, and useage will decline). That is what the whole concept of "peak" oil is about, the maximum rate of possible production.
So far, that peak has been pushed back by better drilling and production technologies, enabling us to recover oil we could not have (economically or otherwise) recovered in the past.
As far as "running out", it sure is a lot harder to find a multi-billion barrel oil field now than it used to be, most were discovered in the 1950's and before.
So the cow-fart theory goes right out the window too?
You are correct, sir!
"Twenty years ago Stanley L. Miller of the University of California at San Diego predicted that the icy moons of Saturn should include methane hydrate ( CH4 . 7H2O ), that is, methane trapped in water ice." - Tobias Owen on TITAN in SciAm 1982
So the prediction is from 1962
How so?
I'll take this moment to applaud your efforts on this, and previous, threads.
The planet mysteriously creates oil in a process that may not involve organic geologic residue from the earths surface. It has a kind of geothermal digestive tract
that produces oil and methane.
Of course even some of us produce methane (LOL).
By saying "renewable" , I am being somewhat facetious
because the time scale for this renewable resource
would be measured in eons. It wouldn't pay to invest in oil futures. Its actually somewhat interesting to examine the theory of a geologic process which produces oil deep within the earths crust. Perhaps we can learn more about it
from exogeology as well.
No more renewable than our supply of any mineral but naturally occuring and, most importantly, accessible anywhere one is willing to drill deep enough. The advanage Saudi Arabia has is the oil is relatively accessible there. If it is a naturally occuring mineral there is a good chance that the "oil stratum" might be available from any starting point.
Lets take the theory of circulation that the human body applies and apply it to the earth. It makes for a pretty interesting analogy for exploration purposes.
If rivers lakes and streams are like the blood flow of the earth, where is its digestive system and where does its "waste product go? What "food" does the earth consume.
Somewhare in that anology awaits the discovery of how oil is made by the earths geologic processes. We make methane
( some of us doo, others make hydrogen sulfide, depending on the type of colonic bacteria we have?).
Anyway food for thought. Once we now the process , we might be able to find more oil, or even duplicate the process by speeding it up under artificial conditions.
"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.
Or beautiful methane seas that some movie star might want to build a mansion next to...or...
Let's get going. Stop worrying about all the tree huggers and get rid of the communist EPA. Start drilling ANWAR and in the lower 48 states. Get the natural gas out to and stop worrying about OPEC.
We do have to wonder how all that fossil fuel came to be located beneath all that dry sand in the middle east though. From what I have heard from our GIs returning from Iraq, I believe it is possible that that fossil fuel deposited there came from the teenie weenie carcasses of zillions upon zillions of sand fleas.
If it turns out that oil is a "chemical" fuel, rather than an "organic" fuel, the lefties will adjust and then start proving that the raw ingredients are also somehow limited. They despise the use of oil, not because of pollution, and not because it may be a limited resource, but because it creates wealth.
Ultimately, at this point, we are dependent on whatever has been in our solar system (including the sun) for our energy needs. So, if mankind continues to live on for four billion or so more years, then we will have concerns about running out of energy.
I agree with you completely.
We are smaller than fleas on an elephant, since when have fleas been able to dehydrate a pachyderm?
Its nice to see science that can make the " Chicken Littles : The Sky is Falling Syndrom" of the world , whose solutions are essentially tyranny,take a halt in their craziness.
I await the liberal wacked out response to see how creatively they handle this information!
There is much entertainment in watching this process and it is just about the only thing I have to thank liberals for!
Thank you for your cogent posting.
Nope, the author (and all of his fans) are in fact the idiots; he repeatedly makes it clear he thinks the "mainstream" theory is oil is from dinosaurs and (land) vegetation.
I guess people consider anyone pointing out they don't know what they're talking about "shrill."
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