http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/thomasgold/ en-us Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:06:23 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2392612/posts About half of the oil in the ocean bubbles up naturally from the seafloor, with Earth giving it up freely like it was of no value. Likewise, NASA satellites collect thousands of images every year, but some of them get passed over because no one thinks there is a use for them. Scientists recently found black gold bubbling up from an otherwise undistinguished mass of ocean imagery. Chuanmin Hu, an optical oceanographer at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and colleagues from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth (UMass), found that they could... NASA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2392612/posts#comment Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:06:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2378559/posts Scientists in Washington, D.C. are reporting laboratory evidence supporting the possibility that some of Earth's oil and natural gas may have formed in a way much different than the traditional process described in science textbooks. Their study is scheduled for Nov./Dec. issue of ACS' Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly publication. Anurag Sharma and colleagues note that the traditional process involves biology: Prehistoric plants died and changed into oil and gas while sandwiched between layers of rock in the hot, high-pressure environment deep below Earth's surface. Some scientists, however, believe that oil and gas originated in other ways, including chemical reactions... American Chemical Society http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2378559/posts#comment Wed, 4 Nov 2009 19:55:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2339691/posts A team of scientists based at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden have made a "revolutionary" discovery about how hydrocarbon is formed, learning that animal and plant fossils are not necessary to form crude oil.> The article, titled Methane-derived hydrocarbons produced under upper mantle conditions, and published in Nature Geoscience, states that "Whether hydrocarbons can also be produced from abiogenic precursor molecules under the high-pressure, high-temperature conditions characteristic of the upper mantle remains an open question. It has been proposed that hydrocarbons generated in the upper mantle could be transported through deep faults to shallower regions in the Earth’s... Digital Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2339691/posts#comment Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:38:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2337346/posts More bad news for the Peak Oil doomsday cult. Russian boffins say they have proved that fossil fuels can be created synthetically by replicating the high pressure, high temperature conditions found in the upper parts of the Earth's crust. The scientists, at the Lomonosov Moscow State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology and the Royal Insitutue of Technology in Stockholm published their work in June. Under conditions of the upper mantle of the Earth's Crust, methane reacts to produce ethane, propane and butane. It means fossils aren't needed to produce oil and gas. While the raw materials to produce synthetic fuels... The Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2337346/posts#comment Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:49:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2337353/posts Letter abstract There is widespread evidence that petroleum originates from biological processes1, 2, 3. Whether hydrocarbons can also be produced from abiogenic precursor molecules under the high-pressure, high-temperature conditions characteristic of the upper mantle remains an open question. It has been proposed that hydrocarbons generated in the upper mantle could be transported through deep faults to shallower regions in the Earth's crust, and contribute to petroleum reserves4, 5. Here we use in situ Raman spectroscopy in laser-heated diamond anvil cells to monitor the chemical reactivity of methane and ethane under upper-mantle conditions. We show that when methane is exposed to... Nature Geoscience 2, 566 - 570 (2009) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2337353/posts#comment Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:55:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2328311/posts The researchers, led by Dr Chris Ballentine from the University of Manchester, concluded that meteorite bombardment, after the moon was first formed, was the only way gases could have arrived so deep within the Earth -- craters on the moon attest to the ferocity of this process... "So we asked the question, `why do volcanoes still spew out gases from so deep, to this day?'" The team sampled volcanic gases in New Mexico. Uniquely, volcanic gases here contain very little air contamination and this allowed the team to measure rare gas isotopes, like neon, for the first time. These isotopes... ScienceDaily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2328311/posts#comment Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:33:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2303305/posts Could Deep Source Hydrocarbons Migrate Up Into Oil and Gas Reservoirs? The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the Earth and formed without organic matter. Now for the first time, scientists have found that ethane and heavier hydrocarbons can be synthesized under the pressure-temperature conditions of the upper mantle —the layer of Earth under the crust and on top of... Geology.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2303305/posts#comment Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:20:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2248737/posts Nano-research on drill cores from the North Sea might help increase extraction rates of oil in Denmark It is a mystery to many people why the world is running out of oil when most of the world’s oilfields have only been half emptied. However some of the oil that has been located is trapped as droplets of oil in small cavities in the surrounding rock or is stuck to the walls of the underground cavity and cannot be accessed by the techniques currently used in the oil industry. Now, new research may have come up with an explanation as to... University of Copenhagen http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2248737/posts#comment Mon, 11 May 2009 20:15:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2217101/posts But it may not explain the presence of the gas on the Red Planet today.Traces of serpentine found at Nili Fossae on Mars.NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Surprises keep coming from Nili Fossae, a long, deep scar in the surface of Mars. In December last year, scientists reported evidence there for carbonates — minerals that typically form in the presence of water1. Then, in January, reports came that there was a large plume of methane in the area. On Earth the gas is made mostly by animals as a by-product — although it can also be produced naturally in the absence of... Nature News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2217101/posts#comment Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:20:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2192460/posts About half of the oil in the ocean bubbles up naturally from the seafloor, with Earth giving it up freely like it was of no value. Likewise, NASA satellites collect thousands of images and 1.5 terrabytes of data every year, but some of it gets passed over because no one thinks there is a use for it. science http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2192460/posts#comment Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:04:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2164774/posts ALIEN microbes living just below the Martian soil are responsible for a haze of methane around the Red Planet, Nasa scientists believe. The Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2164774/posts#comment Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:25:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2154541/posts BBC Audio: Dyson and Clarke Will life spread out from Earth to flourish in the cosmos? Freeman Dyson has always supported the idea, and with great persuasiveness. BBC Four has created an archive of interviews on its Web site, among which is a clip of Dyson discussing life’s variety and the imperative of broadening its range. The theoretical physicist, who played an important role in the development of the ‘atomic spaceship’ concept called Project Orion, doesn’t believe man’s role is simply to send the occasional astronaut out in what he calls ‘a metal can’ to look out a window.... Centauri Dreams http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2154541/posts#comment Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:03:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2111534/posts Finding could influence choice of landing site for Mars Science Laboratory. Ithaca, New YorkMore than four years after researchers first said they had found methane gas on Mars, a scientist claims that he has "nailed" the controversial detection and identified key sources of the gas.Nili Fossae is a hotspot for martian methane, says Michael Mumma (below).JPL-Caltech/Univ. Arizona/NASA On Earth, methane is mostly biological in origin; on Mars, it could signal microbes living deep underground. The latest work suggests that martian methane is concentrated in both space and time - at a handful of hotspots hundreds of kilometres across, plumes of... Nature News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2111534/posts#comment Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:54:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2102079/posts Sole member of world's first single-species ecosystem depends on rocks and radioactivity for life. The rod-shaped D. audaxviator was recovered from thousands of litres of water collected deep in the Mponeng Mine in South Africa.Greg Wanger, J. Craig Venter Institute / Gordon Southam, University of Western Ontario Nestled kilometres down in the hot, dark vaults of Earth's crust, scientists have discovered a remarkably lonely bacterium species. The rod-shaped bacterium, Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator, lives independently of any other organism in a part of the Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa, some 2.8 kilometres beneath Earth's surface. There, water flows from... Nature News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2102079/posts#comment Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:01:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2101704/posts Desulforudis audaxviator is an organism that lives independently in total darkness and at high temperature by reducing sulfate and fixing carbon and nitrogen from its environment, deep within the Earth. It constitutes the first known single-species ecosystem. Illustration © 2008 Thanya Suwansawad Click here to enlarge image The first ecosystem ever found having only a single biological species has been discovered 2.8 kilometers (1.74 miles) beneath the surface of the earth in the Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa. There the rod-shaped bacterium Desulforudis audaxviator exists in complete isolation, total darkness, a lack of oxygen, and 60-degree-Celsius heat... physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2101704/posts#comment Thu, 9 Oct 2008 21:26:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938751/posts Unpicking the route by which microbes produce methane could help to boost the process. Getting usable fuel out of the heavy oil of Canada's tar fields takes a lot of energy.Ian M. Head Researchers have worked out how natural bacteria deep within the Earth break down crude oil and produce methane. This knowledge could help with projects to encourage these bacteria to covert more oil, faster. And it could point towards a way to produce hydrogen - an even cleaner fuel - by using these natural fuel-processing plants.Microbes living on the crude oil in petroleum reservoirs usually start by biodegrading... Nature News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938751/posts#comment Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:10:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042368/posts An ancient organism from the pit of a collapsed volcano may hold the key to tomorrow's hydrogen economy. Scientists from across the world have formed a team to unlock the process refined by a billions-year old archaea. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute will expedite the research by sequencing the hydrogen-producing organism for comparative genomics. When members of the Russian Academy of Sciences isolated a rare archaeal microorganism that breaks down cellulose and produces hydrogen, Biswarup Mukhopadhyay, an assistant professor with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech, saw an opportunity to open a door for development of... www.sciencedaily.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042368/posts#comment Tue, 8 Jul 2008 13:58:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2029907/posts Some weeks ago, I wrote about microbes in the air and their possible role in helping clouds form, in causing rain and in altering the chemistry of the high atmosphere. This week, I want to go in the opposite direction and plunge down into the earth. For many bacteria live deep in the oceans and deep in the earth, far from light, far from what we normally think of as good, comfortable places to live. For example: the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This is a seam on the sea floor in the northwestern Pacific, not far from the island... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2029907/posts#comment Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:00:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2022170/posts The lost civilization of Atlantis may just be legend, but way down below the ocean (to quote the folksinger Donovan) there are some things that are very real — namely, bacteria and archaea. By some estimates, sub-seafloor prokaryotes may account for two-thirds of the biomass of these types of organisms on Earth. The latest evidence for such a huge undersea biosphere, and a depth record of sorts, is reported in Science by R. John Parkes of Cardiff University and colleagues. They have found living prokaryotes 5,335 feet below the ocean floor off Newfoundland, about twice as deep as the previous... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2022170/posts#comment Tue, 27 May 2008 23:53:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013185/posts The dinosaur-killing Chicxulub meteor might have ignited an oilfield rather than forests when it slammed into the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago, say geologists. Smoke-related particles found in sediments formed at the time of the impact are strikingly similar to those created by modern high-temperature coal and oil burning, as opposed to forest fires, says Professor Simon Brassell of Indiana University. He and colleagues from Italy and the UK publish their report on the discovery in the May issue of the journal Geology. ...What he and his colleagues have found instead are particles called cenospheres, which resemble the... Australian Broadcasting Corporation http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013185/posts#comment Thu, 8 May 2008 19:11:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1970343/posts Saturn's smoggy moon Titan has hundreds of times more natural gas and other liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, scientists said today.... Space.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1970343/posts#comment Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:35:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1971440/posts Saturn's smoggy moon Titan has hundreds of times more natural gas and other liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, scientists said today. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky on the miserable moon, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes. This much was known. But now the stuff has been quantified using observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. "Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material — it's a giant factory of organic chemicals," said Ralph Lorenz, a Cassini radar team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. "This vast carbon inventory... Space.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1971440/posts#comment Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:21:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/816303/posts Research Finds Life 1000 Feet Beneath Ocean Floor CORVALLIS, Ore. A new study has discovered an abundance of microbial life deep beneath the ocean floor in ancient basalt that forms part of the Earth's crust, in research that once more expands the realm of seemingly hostile or remote environments in which living organisms can apparently thrive. The research was done off the coast of Oregon near a sea-floor spreading center on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, by scientists from Oregon State University and several other institutions. It will be published Friday in the journal Science. In 3.5 million-year-old crust... spaceref.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/816303/posts#comment Fri, 3 Jan 2003 17:00:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1969957/posts Saturn's smoggy moon Titan has hundreds of times more natural gas and other liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, scientists said today. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky on the miserable moon, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes. This much was known. But now the stuff has been quantified using observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. "Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material — it's a giant factory of organic chemicals," said Ralph Lorenz, a Cassini radar team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. "This vast carbon inventory... space.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1969957/posts#comment Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:02:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1969802/posts Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new Cassini data. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes. The new findings from the study led by Ralph Lorenz, Cassini radar team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA, are reported in the 29 January 2008 issue of the Geophysical Research Letters. "Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material--it's a giant factory of organic chemicals," said Lorenz. "This vast carbon inventory is an important... SpaceRef.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1969802/posts#comment Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:10:35 GMT