Earth Is An Oil-Producing Machine — We're Not Running Out
Well, i be doggone. Earth makes it's own oil.
I am at a loss for words.
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When you actually think about it good and hard - a bunch on dinos turning into oil is a laughable theory.
ReplyDeleteIt would certainly take a crapload of dinos to make as much oil as we have, wouldn't it?
DeleteI've been assuming abiotic production for several years now, but the dinosaur theory wasn't unreasonable. Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, the sheer volume of accumulated dead biomass would have been a lot more than a crapload. Not merely trillions of dead dinos, but quadrillions or quintillions. And even if they're eaten, the carbon would still continue to cycle through the waste because matter isn't destroyed, it merely changes form. But the real crux of the volumetric issue is that the "dead dinosaurs" theory always included ancient plant matter as well as animal matter in the calculations. And most woody plants are basically carbon sinks.
DeleteThanks for sharing the article.
If earth makes oil and replenishes reserves then all those old wells abandoned half a century or more ago should now be capable of producing more oil. If not then this is just another bullshit theory.
ReplyDeleteYou're making two basic thought errors, Dan. I agree with you that the old wells will eventually replenish themselves. However, first you're assuming that half a century is a reasonable timeline for replenishment, and second you're assuming that those locations would be the locations to expect rapid replenishment. We don't yet know enough to make either assumption at this time. It would be more reasonable to assume that the natural production process is slow and probably occurs much, much deeper in the earth than those wells (where pressures are higher) and slowly works it's way upward. Also, since pumping water or oil from the earth causes physical changes to the structure of the underlying rock (pumping resevoirs dry can collapse them), it is reasonable to assume that newer deposits might be found in different locations rather than in the same old locations we've already pumped dry.
DeleteThere are tens of thousands of old no producing wells. None of them are producing any meaningful amounts of oil. If...and that's still a big if....oil replenishes, it does so so slowly as to be of no use to modern society. We use it FAR faster than I replenishes. That means for practical purposes oil is a finite product. When it's gone it's gone. And unless we find a useable replacement before that time society collapses.
DeleteYou're certainly free to believe as you wish, Dan. But FWIW, I already addressed all four of those points above. Doom and gloom can be a seductive mistress, but she can lead you astray, just as fast as any other approach.
DeleteWhether positive or negative, the fact is that nobody knows yet. That's the fundamental nature of science -- NOBODY knows, EVERYTHING is a " big if", because everything is an hypothesis subject to further experiential testing.
Anyway, nothing lasts forever, and at worst, we've certainly had a good run. But I'm not ready to write the future off just yet. In other words, this too shall pass.
If Dino bones make oil.....how did a living organism die on top of the earth and then ended up miles below the surface.
ReplyDeleteOr did the Dino juice leach through all that rock....
It's not the bones, Steve, it's the total biomass from rotted carcasses, (or almost equally from eaten and excreted carcasses), plus the mass from decomposed vegetation. The building blocks are simply raw hydrocarbons from any source, until heat and pressure transform them into petroleum, whether biotically or abiotically.
DeleteSedimentary rock layers can easily be hundreds of feet thick. And rocks move, which is the basis for the science of geology. Look up the term "subduction zone" which explains part of how surface rock can wind up miles below the surface.
Yes, liquids do leach through rock, but he primary transformations are generally mechanical, rather than hydrostatic.