No doubt WND and Mr. Corsi are working on some articles for pub.
Posted on 12/25/2012 9:38:49 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
A new study demonstrates how high hydrocarbons could be formed from methane deep within the Earth, aside from the compression and heating of ancient animal remains over the eons. Fused-methane oil would be far less common than your typical petroleum, of course, but the study shows abiogenic hydrocarbons could conceivably occur in some of the planet’s high-pressure and high-temperature zones.
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used supercomputers to simulate what would happen to carbon and hydrogen atoms buried 40 to 95 miles beneath the Earth’s crust, where they would be subjected to prodigious pressures and temperatures.
They found at temperatures greater than 2,240 degrees F and pressures 50,000 times greater than those at the Earth’s surface, methane molecules can fuse to form hydrocarbons with multiple carbon atoms. Interactions with metal or carbon sped up the fusion process, the researchers said. These conditions are present about 70 miles down, according to an LLNL news release.
Methane, CH4, has one carbon and four hydrogen atoms; high hydrocarbons, like propane and butane, have more carbon atoms.
About 99 percent of all the hydrocarbons in oil and natural gas are derived from the compressed, heated remains of ancient living organisms like zooplankton and algae. These critters were buried under layers of sediments five to 10 miles beneath the surface of the Earth.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, some scientists believed hydrocarbons could form from abiogenic (non-biological) processes, too. The existence of methane on several solar system bodies shows hydrocarbons can exist without organic ingredients. But the theory fell out of favor, in part because no one ever found any abiogenic oil deposits...
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
Unless there used to be dinosaurs on Titan, there have to be other ways of getting methane other than that.
I believe that abiogenic oil is all they ever found.
Jupiter, Saturn and and any number of moons and comets are hip deep in methane and more complex hydrocarbons. Either that's prima facie evidence of ubiquitous life in the outer solar system, or abiotic methane/hydrocarbon formation.
No doubt WND and Mr. Corsi are working on some articles for pub.
Methane, and perhaps some traces of higher carbon molecules are definitely possible in deep planetary interiors. But crude oil is, and will only be found in biogenic sediments.
“...aside from the compression and heating of ancient animal remains over the eons...”
This theory makes no sense at all. How many animals/plants would it take to undergo this compression and heating in order to give us petroleum products for decades? And how this byproduct seeps miles into the earth? Appears to be a fable, not science.
If certain MOONS in our solar system have LAKES of frozen methane..
not to speak of Saturn and Neptune I would say Duuuuugh..
Methane appears to be a totally natural occurrence..
There are countless microfossils and their traces within crude formations. Moreover, there are permeable metamorphic amd igneous structures that could contain crude deposits, but they don’t, unless migration has been accomodated by geophysical contact with crude bearing sediments, but these are exceedingly rare.
‘Hydrocarbons Could Form Deep In the Earth From Methane, Not Animal Remains’
Always have and always will.
About 99 percent of all the hydrocarbons in oil and natural gas are derived from the compressed, heated remains of ancient living organisms like zooplankton and algae. These critters were buried under layers of sediments five to 10 miles beneath the surface of the Earth.
NOW I understand ..
It was that sudden dirt rain that buried the first earth, NOT a flood, that caused all this deep in the bowels of the earth stuff.
Dirt rain ..
Gott'a remember that ...
i first heard this theory about ten years ago and it just made so much sense.
But i am not an expert and am waiting to hear more information, just from an esthetic point of view i hope you are correct
The earth replenishes oil just like the body replenishes blood. It’s a natural process that will not stop until the planet itself dies a final death.
That should read the sea replenishes oil just like the body replenishes blood. As long as we have the sea we’ll have oil.
You can never completely deplete a field.
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