Walking through Time

A Pedestrian in Time Chasing the origins of Oil

James L Bradley August 14th, 2011 Chasing the origins of Oil
It runs modern society along with fueling most serious political tensions than any other substance on our world today, the question still remains on where does in really originate, and exactly what is left for our rapidly increasing consumption. It is believed that nature has been converting ancient dead life into the much sought after black gold for millions of years creating it with a little more than heat, pressure and time at least that is what our learned scholars tell us. Albeit fuel prices across the world are spiking, and there are the experts who tell us in too many reports to cite is that we running out our scientists still cant tell us with any level of certainty where and how it came into being, how long it took and how much there really is left for our monsters that cruise the highways and byways of our planet, heat our home or are additives to our daily dose of medicine. There seems to be numerous theories related to the ignitable fuel, whereas we normally label it as a fossil fuel along with coal and natural gas, which most in the field believed it was transformed from long dead organisms you know, where a majority of it came from the fossils of plants and tiny marine organisms albeit some think we can throw a large animal into the mix here and there, a dinosaur or two may have wandered into the formula is not a far fetched idea but most think they would have made a small and insignificant contribution. The other theory running about is that there is more oil in the Earth, created in the early days of the Planets beginning, that has yet to be tapped. The number one theory, dead stuff, accumulated on the bottom of oceans, riverbeds or swamps, mixing with mud and sand. Over time, additional sediments piled on top of the dead stuff and as it was buried, the pressure created heat transforming the dead stuff into kerogen whereas left to their own devices kerogen will eventually crack, breaking into shorter and lighter molecules composed almost solely of carbon and hydrogen and depending on how liquid or gaseous the mixture is will cause the chemical mixture to either form petroleum or natural gas. What kind of times span is involved our boys in the know arent really sure but the guess in the order of hundreds of thousands of years in other words dont run down to the sea shore and throw a dead plant or animal in the surf and expect to collect your gallon of oil the next day.

This theory of dead stuff being the grandfather of our worlds oil is called the biogenic theory, first laid on the table by Georgius Agricola, a German scholar and scientist, to be further supported by Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humbold almost 250 years ago, albeit German by birth he was a Russian scientist. From the same part of the planet in the 1950s emerged the other theory, the abiogenic theory that petroleum might seep upward through cracks formed by asteroid impacts to form underground pools in this there was a semi-rush to explore ancient impact craters for signs of oil. There has been some abiogenic sources of oil found, but never in any appreciable amount to make it commercially viable. That there is a controversy over the theory, which revolves around whether naturally forming oil reserves does exist at all, but how much they contribute to the Earths overall reserves and how much time and effort should geologist devote to looking for them. In other words dont expect ExxonMobile to be pawing around Winslow, Arizona. What if we found large reserves? Scientists then agree that it would mean Earth does indeed have vast reserves of untapped petroleum, and consider that since other rocky objects from the same raw material as on Earth, than it might be possible that crude oil on other planets or moons would possibly exist. Regardless both processes take literally thousands of years, meaning if the Earth does contain far more oil than we currently believe it will eventually dry up, hopefully well have another form of locomotion, making plastic bags, and adding to the hundreds of items we use on a daily basis. Another hope is that we survive the turmoil that will be created by certain members of our society who derive their income and handsome profits in the control and distribution of the black gold.

According to our scholars 650 million years ago during the Late Proterzoic era our home-world was mostly oceans with a bump or two of land mass peeking up from the depths and since today we seem to be concentrating on the close to the surface, high quality oil in Iraq (now suffering its 7th War in modern times for its control) Ill track the region in my synopsis of our precious oil. It is said that it was during this time-period that the accumulation of marine sediments was well underway whereas animals with hard shells settled down in the deeps, along with previous animal species although microscopic in size normally labeled ichnofossils. In the preceding map the brown represents the land, and off into the upper left-hand side of the group youll see the Arabian Peninsula just below South China (under water), and for you Alaska fans its situated on the lower right hand side of the globe. Throughout the history of our home-world, there have been more than one time when the continental land mass joined to form what we call a super-continent, where over time they again broke and drifted apart some maintain that early in Earths life a collision with an extraterrestrial body which broke off a piece to form our moon, shook the Earth to its core creating the tectonic plates that over years and year drifted about on its hot outer core. There is a name for this cycle, the Wilson Cycle, where in a recent one about 1000 to 830 million years ago most continental mass formed the super-continent Rodinia. Before that there was another supercontinent called Nuna or Columbia which was assembled by another global scale collision event. As for being the latest, the tectonic processes similar to today must have been active during the Proterozoic era. After the breakup of Rodinia beginning around 800 Ma, it is possible the continents hooked up again around 550 Ma forming a hypothetical super-continent our scholars sometimes refer to as Pannotia or Vendia where it joined the land masses of Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia however, that combination of continental land masses was not complete, since the continent Laurentia (sort of equivalent to North America) had already started breaking off around 610 MA one thing is pretty certain that by the end of the Proterozic eon, most of the continental mass lay united in a position around the South Pole.

The Cambrian is the 1st geological period of the Paleozoic Era which is estimated to last from 542 Ma to 488.3 Ma, it was followed by the Ordovician scholars have yet to determine a concrete definition of the period whereas opinions and finding are constantly moving it was named (established) by Adam Sedgwick naming it after Cambria (the Latin name for Wales) where Britains Cambrian rocks are best exposed. In looking at the above map, Arabia is off to the right below the equator now placed left of India and joined with Gondwana with 1/3rd of more of its land mass still beneath the sea. The Laurentia (North America) is in the middle of the map straddling the equator with Alaska the northernmost tip. This Era is unique in its high proportion of sites are well preserved, where the soft parts of organisms along with their hard shells are accessible to modern sciencebecause of this, our scholars note that the period surpasses in biological finds even into later periods. Prior to this era life on Earth was mostly on the small scale and very simple, following this complex organisms gradually become more common in them preceding the Cambrian, however, it was not until the Cambrian that mineralization showed up, where fossilized organisms became more common. The diversification of life-forms was relatively rapid, whereas the scholars have termed the event the Cambrian Explosion.

This huge increase in many diverse forms of life is believed to have produced the 1st representatives of many of our modern forms, representing the evolutionary stems (roots) of modern groups of species. Although it thought that life was abundant in the oceans, many believe the land was barren, with nothing more than a microbial crud known as soil crust (in other words the makings of our modern day politicians) covering the land. The theory is that based on our limited evidence (in some ones mind) there is a suggestion that a few animals bumped around on land, while most of the exposed land mass resembled deserts spanning horizon to horizon. Shallow seas flanked the margins of several continents created during the breakup of the supercontinent Pannotia. The seas were relatively warm, therefore there was no polar ice for much of this era.

While life prospered in the oceans, the land was barren with nothing more than a microbial 'crud' known as soil crust covering the land. Apart from some tentative evidence suggesting that a few animals foundered around on land, most of the continents resembled deserts spanning from horizon to horizon. Shallow seas flanked the margins of several continents created during the breakup of the supercontinent Pannotia. The seas were relatively warm, and polar ice was absent for much of the era. The United States Federal Geographic Data Committee uses a "barred capital C" character similar to the capital letter Ukrainian Ye to represent the Cambrian Period.[9] The proper[10] glyph is a proposed addition to the Unicode standard at code point

The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from 542 0.3 to 488.3 1.7 Ma ago (ICS, 2004,[5] chart); it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's Cambrian rocks are best exposed.[6] The Cambrian is unique in its unusually high proportion of lagersttten. These are sites of exceptional preservation, where 'soft' parts of organisms are preserved as well as their more resistant shells. This means that our understanding of the Cambrian biology surpasses that of some later periods.[7] The Cambrian Period marked a profound change in life on Earth; prior to the Cambrian era, life was on the whole small and simple. Complex organisms gradually became more common in the millions of years immediately preceding the Cambrian, but it was not until this period that mineralised hence readily fossilised organisms became common.[8] This diversification of lifeforms was relatively rapid, and is termed the Cambrian explosion. This vast increase in diverse forms of life produced the first representatives of many modern phyla, representing the evolutionary stems of modern groups of species. While life prospered in the oceans, the land was barren with nothing more than a microbial 'crud'

known as soil crust covering the land. Apart from some tentative evidence suggesting that a few animals foundered around on land, most of the continents resembled deserts spanning from horizon to horizon. Shallow seas flanked the margins of several continents created during the breakup of the supercontinent Pannotia. The seas were relatively warm, and polar ice was absent for much of the era. The United States Federal Geographic Data Committee uses a "barred capital C" character similar to the capital letter Ukrainian Ye to represent the Cambrian Period.[9] The proper[10] glyph is a proposed addition to the Unicode standard at code point