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If I understand right, most of our current fossil fuels are from an era when there weren't bacteria capable of breaking down lignin. So, plants would die and d
by elihu 4y ago
If I understand right, most of our current fossil fuels are from an era when there weren't bacteria capable of breaking down lignin. So, plants would die and dry out, but wouldn't fully decompose. You'd have huge mounds of dead plants that would eventually get buried and turn into oil.
Those conditions don't exist anymore, so they're actually a non-renewable resource.
- glandium 4y agoI feel like even if the conditions existed, humans would be preventing them from happening. Or is it what you were implying?
- elihu 4y agoNo, I mean that the conditions can't happen anymore the way they did then, because in the intervening time microbes have evolved that can eat lignin. The dead plants would be almost entirely decomposed before they have a chance to get buried.
- MathMonkeyMan 4y agohttps://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1517943113 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1517943113
- dredmorbius 4y agoCoal was formed from wood and land-based plant matter (such as bogs). Oil is largely formed from algae. Natural gas tends to be associated with oil deposits. Anaerobic conditions are required for formation. See Jeffrey S. Dukes, "Burning Buried Sunshine" (2003) <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1026391317686 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1026391317686> <https://dge.carnegiescience.edu/DGE/Dukes/Dukes_ClimChange1.pdf https://dge.carnegiescience.edu/DGE/Dukes/Dukes_ClimChange1....> (PDF)