Does Deep Earth Host Untapped Fuel?

ABCnews.com ^ | January 19, 2006 | Lee Dye

[Hardastarboard]

Then we could say to the environazis "Look, we aren't using fossil fuels anymore! We're only consuming the milk of Geia!"

They'll burn you at the stake for such heresy. They'll still say you're an infidel defiling their beautiful mother, sucking the very life out of her. They are enviro Nazis, after all.

[trashcanbred]

I no longer believe there is any shortage "crisis" in the near future.

Though I don't completely disbelieve abiogenic theory... I don't believe that most of the oil fields we have today were create in that manner.

I also don't believe you are going to find vast amounts of oil. Look at Gold's experiment in Sweden. What a success that was... $60 million spent on two oil wells and for what? 80 barrels of oil that probably came from the oil used to lubricate the drill.

I am not saying that we should complete disclaim this theory... there maybe some truths in it... but I am not gonna sit back and say "Yay!!! unlimited oil and methane!!!".

[xcamel]

Just the energy locked up in gas hydrates seems to be more than all the oil extracted and refined so far.

[patton]

I think methane is formed abiotically, and tranformed into oil microbially, at lesser depths/pressures.

Which says all we have to do is match consumption to production.

[arthurus]

Because those fossils are, indeed, as old as the deposits where they reside. I would like to know about such fossils and their relationship to the new oil in the replenishing sites.

[arthurus]

converting coal

Thers's that, too. And all of these become cheaper to do once hey are being done.

[lstanle]

"The question is not whether, but how much. And if it's lots, does it migrate to the surface fast enough to replenish what we use."

It would be interesting if someone could look at some old oil fields that haven't been pumped in decades and see if they are being replenished from below.

[Go Gordon]

It does not seem logical to me that a biological process that takes so long could produce so much.

I have yet to have anyone explain to me how many dinasaurs died beneath the Bearing sea in order to produce all that oil, miles beneath the surface of the ocean - in a place no historian has ever postulated was ever dry land.

[Cicero]

I'm far from buying this theory unless someone manages to prove it.

But I don't see why diatoms couldn't get into oil via movements of the earth. After all, if you can have ancient shells up in the Himalayas because of the movement of the Indian subcontinental plate, and all sorts of various rocks and other objects squeezed into conglomerate rock, why not diatoms in oil?

By the same token, it's possible to imagine how oil can get down pretty deep, so proving this theorem would require more than just finding a few deep reserves.

[razorback-bert]

Why so slow

Problems on top of problems, plus a death.

[ThePythonicCow]

Better luck next time <grin>

[Physicist]

You're missing the point. How does the new oil find its way to beds with those specific types of fossils, which aren't found everywhere, and probably are even more rare at a depth of 100 miles?

[aimhigh]

If the author's theory is correct, then this raises a question. Currently, oil drillers will inject salt water into oil wells to help push out more oil. Could the injection of salt water into oil wells affect the process? Are we killing the process.

[patton]

Probably.

[Obadiah]

Exactly. You mean to tell me that all of the oil the world has burned since the turn of the 20th century was from some poulation of dinosaurs and some plants? Pffft.

[ASOC]

So, these are found in the Jovian system?

[JohnBovenmyer]

The gas hydrates have lots of potential, but need more basic research to harvest them safely. You don't want your what you're mining to be destabilized and boil away in one giant f*rt before you can sell it. Not to mention the acute damage caused by the giant bubble displacing the water to sink ships or create giant waves. Nor all the hassles the greenies would cause if you let all that methane enter the atmosphere before we could burn it to the less potent greenhouse gas CO2. It probably can be harvested economically once enough R&D is done.

[Alamo-Girl]

Academia has always fought hard against the TRUTH

I think most academics are interested in facts, not Truth - and there is a huge difference.

Thanks for the ping!

[hosepipe]

[ I think most academics are interested in facts, not Truth - and there is a huge difference. ]

Indeed ..FACTS.. does have a 2nd reality ring to it..
Facts according to what?.. When I'm driving around the world does seem to be flat, except for the Mountains and Valleys.. Depends on your vantage point I suppose what is a fact or not.. If you are earth bound it can be hard to see clearly.. And if you are a DNA'osaur well you just might be a primate as well.. or think you are.. Humans can indeed Ape any animal.... and DO...

[Alamo-Girl]

Facts according to what?..

Indeed. That is exactly the point. There is always an observer problem.

Thank you so much for your insights!