>>This calls for some kind of catastrophism ping, though Dr. Velikovsky thought BOTH the hydrocarbons and the craters had an extraterrestrial origin.<<
Dr. Velikovsky was the pariah of the scientific community !
Hell, Carl 'Spasmos' Sagan tried to have him academically lynched . .
More like "embarassing joke" rather than "pariah" and it's rather difficult to describe him as a scientist or part of the scientific community.