The Deep, Hot Biosphere
by Thomas Gold
foreword by Freeman Dyson
The Deep, Hot Biosphere
by Thomas Gold
foreword by Freeman Dyson
Russian discovery blows gas theoryRussian microbiologists have proved that methane is evolved by archaebacteria living in the hot salt solutions circulating deep in the crust. The research, by Nadezhda Verkhovtseva of Lomonosov Moscow State University, implies that organic-rich sediment may not be the only source for useful hydrocarbon reserves. The samples were obtained from the Vorotilovskaya Deep Well (70km north of Nizhny Novgorod). The implication of this is that many areas, formerly rejected as hydrocarbon plays should now be looked at with renewed interest.
out of the oil windowGas (Methane) Hydrates BRecent mapping conducted by the USGS off North Carolina and South Carolina shows large accumulations of methane hydrates. A pair of relatively small areas, each about the size of the State of Rhode Island, shows intense concentrations of gas hydrates. USGS scientists estimate that these areas contain more than 1,300 trillion cubic feet of methane gas, an amount representing more than 70 times the 1989 gas consumption of the United States. Some of the gas was formed by bacteria in the sediments, but some may be derived from deep strata of the Carolina Trough. The Carolina Trough is a significant offshore oil and gas frontier area where no wells have been drilled.
A New FrontierLife After Death in the Deep SeaAbstract: The first examples of life forms not dependent on solar energy were discovered by scientists using towed cameras and the submersible Alvin in 1977 along hydrothermal vents of the Galapagos Rift. Since then, investigators have made hundreds of dives aboard Alvin to learn more about these unusual ecological communities. In the spring of 1991, Alvin and its tender, Atlantis II, happened to be on station above the East Pacific Rise between 9 and 10 degrees north latitude only a few days after the axial summit trough 2,550 meters below the surface erupted, obliterating a thriving vent community. The authors made numerous dives on the 9N Biotransect over the ensuing 10 years. Their article describes the return of life to the vents and the ecological succession they witnessed.
by Richard A. Lutz,
Timothy M. Shank,
and Robert EvansLife on other PlanetsHighly oxidized iron is abundant on Mars, and very small-grained magnetite can then be expected to be one of the accumulated residues of microbial processes; so can iron sulfide and methane-derived carbonates. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are the large molecules that might remain in a rock that originally contained crude oil but then was exposed for millions of years to the high vacuum of space. All these substances have been found in the discovery meteorite, closely packaged to each other, and this by itself would make a strong case for the microbial interpretation. In addition, there are small objects seen under scanning electron microscopy that may well be fossils of microbes. While the last item by itself would not be conclusive evidence, the combination of this together with oil and the three residue products make a strong case for the microbial explanation. It is true that each step can occur without biological intervention, but the chance of finding by chance the evidence for all three solids in a small volume, together with hydrocarbons, seems to be very low. Many terrestrial oil and gas wells show just such an association (but an association with helium also, which the meteorite could not have transported through space).
by Thomas Gold
May 1997
Just another example of where the evolutionists have led us down the wrong path.
125 years behind?Abiogenic Gas DebateThis paper, written by J.F. Kenney of Gas Resources Corp. in Houston and three Russian co-authors... present an evaluation of the chemical potentials and related thermodynamic affinities for n-alkanes... They also briefly describe the experimental production of petroleum hydrocarbons using only wetted marble (CaCO3) and solid iron oxide (FeO), in an apparatus allowing investigation at pressures up to 50 kbar and temperatures up to 1,500° Celsius. Kenney said there is no real debate about petroleum origination. "There has not been any 'debate' about the origin of hydrocarbons for over a century," he stated. "Competent physicists, chemists, chemical engineers and men knowledgeable of thermodynamics have known that natural petroleum does not evolve from biological material since the last quarter of the 19th century." ...No one in the United States has been more associated with the theory of abiogenic petroleum than Thomas Gold, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, now retired. "The only real opponents to this story (of abiogenic origin) are in Western Europe and in the United States, and they are the professional petroleum geologists," he said.
by David Brown
November 2002
George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent
62 miles via pipeline versus 6,000 by supertanker... hmm... let me think...Earth's Hidden Oil ReservesHenry Scott of Indiana University South Bend... who had read Gold’s 1998 book The Deep Hot Biosphere... simulated the conditions within the mantle using a diamond anvil apparatus. He took two diamonds with flattened tips; heated them up; stuck some iron (II) oxide, calcite and water between them; and pushed the diamonds together. The setup generated temperatures up to 1,500°C and 100,000 times the pressure found at sea level. These conditions forced the carbon in the calcite to react with the hydrogen in the water, forming methane. All of which indicates that simple hydrocarbons -- but not necessarily their heavier counterparts, oil and natural gas -- could exist deep within the earth. In his next experiment, Scott plans to move up to the heavier stuff. But even if he does find that there could be oil reserves in the mantle, don’t expect the price at the pump to drop. At the 62-to-186-mile depth that Gold suggested, even the most ambitious oilman wouldn’t get to it anytime soon.
by Gregory Mone
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What! You mean all those dinosaurs died for nothing?
The Deep, Hot Biosphere by Thomas Gold
Already been cited in argument ...
But, it's always nice to see someone else 'pushing' current thinking on this subject.
Natural Gas, Oil Occur Naturally & Are Not a Limited Fossil Fuel, Says Prominent ScientistThe astronomers have been able to find that hydrocarbons, as oil, gas and coal are called, occur on many other planetary bodies. They are a common substance in the universe. You find it in the kind of gas clouds that made systems like our solar system. You find large quantities of hydrocarbons in them. Is it reasonable to think that our little Earth, one of the planets, contains oil and gas for reasons that are all its own and that these other bodies have it because it was built into them when they were born?
Thomas Gold
interviewed by Tom Valentine
