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The idea that oil and gas come from decaying organic matter is the prevailing theory in the west but some people including Thomas Gold had the idea that they co

The idea that oil and gas come from decaying organic matter is the prevailing theory in the west but some people including Thomas Gold had the idea that they come from the primordial material the earth is made of, and seep up to the crust. If that is the case then there could be vast quantities of hydrocarbons inside the earth. https://youtu.be/lr42BP3wvOw https://youtu.be/lr42BP3wvOw

stuaxo 4y ago
The problem isn't that we will run out of hydrocarbons - we already have enough known reserves to make the earth uninhabitable to us.
- hasmanean 4y ago
  If we can green Mars, surely we can think of a way to green the Sahara. As always it’s the political will that’s lacking.
  - cafard 4y ago
    We can green Mars? I hadn't heard.
MarkusQ 4y ago
It's the prevailing theory because there's so much evidence for it. We have good models for how it works, they are predictive, we find deposits at various stages in the process, we find fossils of the expected sort throughout coal fields, we find other bio-markers, isotope ratios, as we would expect, etc. We even know why the bulk of the deposits formed when they did -- after plants had evolved cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin but before fungi had evolved the ability to digest these molecules.
- hasmanean 4y ago
  Somehow I find geologists unconvincing ever since they drove poor Wegener to suicide.
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > I find geologists unconvincing ever since they drove poor Wegener to suicide You’re rejecting an empirical and tested field of science because of a single incident?
    - hasmanean 4y ago
      I really should put a satire label on that comment. In any case it was not a single incident. They torpedoed his career and made it impossible for him to get a position at any university. Inbred hacks. One correction: he didn’t commit suicide but died on an expedition to Greenland. https://medium.com/swlh/the-delirious-ravings-of-alfred-wegener-1db334f164dd https://medium.com/swlh/the-delirious-ravings-of-alfred-wege...
- hasmanean 4y ago
  A whole lot of evidence=a lot of hysterisis. That evidence may have been misinterpreted to support a wrong theory. While coal might actually come from organic matter from the Carboniferous era as you suggested, I think oil and gas may not. Hydrocarbons are the most abundant things in the solar system (the Oort Cloud might outweigh the entire solar system) and the outer planets are mostly hydrocarbons… and yet all the hydrocarbons on earth come from fossil plants? Thomas Gold wrote a book about it. It’s fascinating reading. Here is a review. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1701266114 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1701266114

stuaxo 4y ago

The problem isn't that we will run out of hydrocarbons - we already have enough known reserves to make the earth uninhabitable to us.

hasmanean 4y ago
If we can green Mars, surely we can think of a way to green the Sahara. As always it’s the political will that’s lacking.
- cafard 4y ago
  We can green Mars? I hadn't heard.

MarkusQ 4y ago

It's the prevailing theory because there's so much evidence for it. We have good models for how it works, they are predictive, we find deposits at various stages in the process, we find fossils of the expected sort throughout coal fields, we find other bio-markers, isotope ratios, as we would expect, etc. We even know why the bulk of the deposits formed when they did -- after plants had evolved cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin but before fungi had evolved the ability to digest these molecules.

hasmanean 4y ago
Somehow I find geologists unconvincing ever since they drove poor Wegener to suicide.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > I find geologists unconvincing ever since they drove poor Wegener to suicide You’re rejecting an empirical and tested field of science because of a single incident?
  - hasmanean 4y ago
    I really should put a satire label on that comment. In any case it was not a single incident. They torpedoed his career and made it impossible for him to get a position at any university. Inbred hacks. One correction: he didn’t commit suicide but died on an expedition to Greenland. https://medium.com/swlh/the-delirious-ravings-of-alfred-wegener-1db334f164dd https://medium.com/swlh/the-delirious-ravings-of-alfred-wege...
hasmanean 4y ago
A whole lot of evidence=a lot of hysterisis. That evidence may have been misinterpreted to support a wrong theory. While coal might actually come from organic matter from the Carboniferous era as you suggested, I think oil and gas may not. Hydrocarbons are the most abundant things in the solar system (the Oort Cloud might outweigh the entire solar system) and the outer planets are mostly hydrocarbons… and yet all the hydrocarbons on earth come from fossil plants? Thomas Gold wrote a book about it. It’s fascinating reading. Here is a review. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1701266114 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1701266114