Are we running out of fossil fuels? - peak oil theory

[MossRoad]

I don't expect an answer for my question but I'll throw it out anyways. If oil/hydrocarbons are from old animals and plants how come we find hydrocarbons on other moons/planets? I have never understood this and I have never seen an explanation.

When oil does finally start to run out, whenever that is, its price will start to increase dramatically and other energy technologies will make money sense. It won't be the end of the world.

Later,
Dan

I heard somewhere about 3-4 months ago that oil companies are going back and looking at old, abandoned oil fields that went dry 30-40 years ago and lo and behold... there's oil in them again. They are trying to determine where it is coming from, but some are looking into the possibility that volcanic action deep under these oil fields is somehow producing new oil. It was a complete contradiction of the theory that oil only comes from dead dinos, plants, etc... that we have embraced for all these years. Interesting theory. I wish I could find that on-line somewhere.

 

[thingy]

Sure,,the oil will run out,,,we'll adapt,,,what,,about 150 years ago,we didn't have much use for it,,we'll get by just fine,,,but it won't run out in our lifetimes or even close,,,so,,lets use the **** out of it why we can!! thingy

 

[EddieWalker]

They are trying to determine where it is coming from, but some are looking into the possibility that volcanic action deep under these oil fields is somehow producing new oil. It was a complete contradiction of the theory that oil only comes from dead dinos, plants, etc... that we have embraced for all these years.

This is where I have a mental block. How does an animal or plant turn to oil? Every instance of death in any living form always ends up with it drying out and decomposing. When does this turn to something that leads to oil? We're mostly water, so what percentage of an animal is converted to crude oil?

None of it makes any sense. Then on top of that, the dinasours dried up remains somehow travels thousands of feet into the core of the planet to become oil. How does this happen?

If the preasure is so great deep inside the planet where the oil is found, how does the animal and plant remains force there way into this area of extreme preasure? Wouldn't the preasure force everything out?

What percentage of a dinasour ends up making oil? The numbers boggle the mind trying to consider how many must have died to create our current known reserves.

Why is it only dinasours? What about mammoths and the giant beaver? There are all sorts of animals on the planet all the time. Why are none of them ever turned into oil? Is it still going on, but it takes 40 to 60 million years? seriously, how can the remains from an animals or plant survive that long to be converted to anything?

None of it adds up for me.

Eddie

 

[Jagmandave]

there's oil in them again. They are trying to determine where it is coming from, but some are looking into the possibility that volcanic action deep under these oil fields is somehow producing new oil. It was a complete contradiction of the theory that oil only comes from dead dinos, plants, etc... that we have embraced for all these years. Interesting theory. I wish I could find that on-line somewhere.

I remember reading this too, only about an oil field in the Louisiana gulf, it's got my curiosity up also...........and I'm with Eddy, Dinos as a source of oil makes little sense to me either. An outgrowth of volcanic action from the core of the earth makes more sense to me...............

 

[KYErik]

Here's my 2 cents about why we don't "see" oil/coal being made today. Its being made now, but very slowly.

Most of us see dead animals/plants rotting away to next to nothing, but the key here is the avaliability of oxygen. If air is present, then bacteria can easily decompose dead plant and animal material and typically carbon dioxide is released as a waste product. However, without oxygen, the bacterial decomposition process is greatly slowed down (such as in a septic tank or in a pile of mulch that is not turned) and dead things can pile up faster than bacteria can break them down. The same holds true for a lack of moisture or if the place is too acidic or basic (putting lime on a dead animal or in an outhouse) these will also slow bacterial decomposition. I think coal formation is much easier to understand than oil and gas formation. Yes- technically coal is being formed today but its a very slow process that occurs in acidic peat bogs and under the ocean. Bog body - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peat from these swampy areas can be mined, dried and burned. Much of the world was swampy back in the days of the dinosaurs, and with higher temperatures and plenty of water, plant growth is very lush much like modern day rain forests. This material that didn't rot was eventually covered up by silt or soil and buried one way or another or even by earthquakes.

The gas/oil deposits in the Gulf of Mexico may be the result of lots of dead plant and animal material washing out the Mississippi into the ocean- or possible the remains of lots of dead algae that sank to the bottom of the ocean since the delta was originally up near Memphis TN. Many of the places that are dry ground now were once covered by oceans and some areas flooded now were once dry land or swamps so its hard to tell exactly where it all came from. We can see gas production everywhere- Methane (a flammable gas) is produced by bacteria in our large intestines. But I'm not sure that this is the mechanism that procuced natural gas that is harvested from the earth.

I know it isn't the same as making oil and gas, but chemical conversions take over at a certain temp when wet hay is stored and catches fire. Initially the moisture in the wet hay allows some heat to be produced by living cells (plant and bacterial) this results in the initial heating, however chemical by products of this process react with eachother to produce more heat and the process snowballs until the hay is smoldering. All the living cells are roasted and killed by the building heat before the hay begins to smolder- the last few phases before the fire are purely a cascade of chemical reactions.

Going from "a lack of decomposition" to oil and gas is also likely mainly a chemical process which needs heat and pressure to give us gas and oil.

 

[N80]

The earth is a balloon made of dirt. It is inflated with oil. We won't run out of oil but we might deflate the balloon. That's what worries me. If Saudi Arabia were to collapse as the balloon deflates, the Atlantic Ocean will empty into it and the beachfront property prices on the US east coast will plummet. The price of shrimp will be unbearable!

 

[riptides]

None of it makes any sense. Then on top of that, the dinasours dried up remains somehow travels thousands of feet into the core of the planet to become oil. How does this happen?

I once stood in the heart of a middle eastern desert, I look down an see a "clam shell". I alert my buddy that we aren't alone. He thinks I have heatstroke.

Low and behold, we were standing at the edge of a coral reef.

Unreal, vivid, and makes me think to this day.

-Mike Z.

 

[dmccarty]

I can understead the theory of fossil fuels from dead animals as well as the idea of the what maybe on the surface of the earth today can be moved deep underground over time. Just drive an interstate through a mountain range and see the convoluted layers. That makes sense and I can see the theory.

The Astro Boys and Girls are finding liquid methane or similar stuff on other planets/moons. As well as hydrocarbons what ever that means. I think I am safe in saying that they ain't finding diesel and 93 gas.

So this makes me wonder if they fossil fuel theory is really 100% right.

There was a guy a few years ago that thinks that the fossil fuel theory is wrong. He dug a deep well in Norway, I think. He hit some gas but not enough hydrocarbons to prove his theory.

Later,
Dan

 

[EddieWalker]

There's all sorts of evidence of the oceans covering land in past. There are some coral reefs on mountiains in Arizona. I saw clam fossils on the Ruby Mountians in Nevada. There's no question that the oceasn have been higher and the land has been lower. I'm a firm believer in Continental Drift and mountains rising from plates combining.

What doesn't make any sense to me is that some parts of animals make it down thousands of feet into the earth to form oil.

Does anybody know how much known oil was in the planet? How many billions and billions of barrels? One of many problems I have wtih the dinasour theory and oil is what percentage of the animal becomes oil? I find it hard to believe that it's one percent of it's live weight even if it did happen. How many animals would it take to make a billion barrells?

OK, so we'll pretend that this is possible, then that must mean it took an enourmous quantity of animals to do this. It boggles my mind to figure this out, but common sense tells me that just about every animal on the planet for a very, very long time would have to contribute it's share to create what we know of having in oil reserves. That means that it must have been very common for there remains to travel down thousands of feet into the planet.

How come this doesn't happen anymore? How come nobody can repeat this? How did dead animal remains get down there? Gravity only pulls so much. Once it's on the surface of the ground, it's not going down very far on it's own. In fact, things in the ground have a way of working there way to the surface about as often as they work there way under.

If we believe that the oil is created by animals that were quickly covered by something, then we should be able to find remains of them further down than what we are today. Most fossils are found under several feet of ground. Maybe more in cases, but some are also found on the surface. Thousands of feet down just isn't a reasonable assumption.

It's impossible for me to imagine enough animals being covered up fast enough, and then sucked down deep enough to be preasureized into oil. In fact, it just sounds silly to even consider it possible.

We know that the asteroids killed off the dinasours, but it still took time for them to die off. It wasn't an instant global kill, and they were not burried by thousands of feet of silt or dust. They died, decomposed and a very few were covered just right to fosilize.

I'm still very confused.

Eddie

 

[dmccarty]

Eddie,

I confused as well. I don't think it makes much difference but I read/saw that the fossil fuels may not have been from Dino the Dinosaur but plankton/algae like creatures. Still it would take a huge volume of dead critters that hit the magic spot to be moved deep enough underground to find the magic temperature/pressure to make black gold. And what percentage of dead creatures make the magic transformation? 1%, 5%, 10%, 30%? We have been pulling huge volumes of oil, not to mention gases, from the ground for a decades. That is an aweful lot of dead creatures.

Can we even create in the lab oil from dead critters? How long does it take? What temperatures and pressures? Surely this has been done by someone...

Later,
Dan