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Chevron drills to vast oil reserve in Gulf of Mexico - 4 Miles Below?!?!?!?

reavoreavo Member Posts: 2,173
in Off-Topic Discussion

Chevron drills to vast oil reserve in Gulf of Mexico

The article says that the found the reserve 4 miles below the ocean floor.  I was told that oil comes from dinosaurs and other organic decay.  So, how did the oil get 4 miles below the ocean floor then? 

What era would that strata be from?  I don't think there was any life on Earth at that stage, was there?

Comments

  • olddaddyolddaddy Member Posts: 3,356

    Yea, that's my understanding too, that oil is a fossil fuel created by pressure within the earth. 4 miles down indicates that maybe at one point in time this area may have been higher, maybe a shifting in the continental plates, or some sort of geological activity, caused the earth's surface to shift. maybe there was an upheaval somewhere, and this area may have had a corresponding downheaval.

    Just an addendum, there is also a theory that a killer asteroid impacted the earth in the Gulf of Mexico, generating the glacer age that killed off the dinosaurs. Maybe that caused the geological shift. Interesting though.

  • PurpleLizardPurpleLizard Member Posts: 20
    WOW !
    thats crazy... 4 miles really isnt that big, is it?
    Maybe when the earths plates all moved to where they are now might have somthing to do with it???
    Very interesting ....
    They say coal is from dead trees and stuff too.
    coal, oil.... dinasaur and tree leftovers that turned into hydrocarbons...
    so they say... my cousin says God put everything right where it is.
    who knows.



  • honzolohonzolo Member Posts: 321
     Because the whole oil comes from dinosaurs thing is untrue.
  • Rikimaru_XRikimaru_X Member UncommonPosts: 11,718

    Good point. I think that there might have been some shifting in the continenal plates or somthing. There had to be some type of activity there if oil is actually there. Maybe there was some type of graveyard? Humm...



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  • honzolohonzolo Member Posts: 321
     But either way, its good news and they need to jump on it as well as working on coal to oil production and tapping our resources as well as continuing to develop other energy means.
  • KorususKorusus Member UncommonPosts: 831

    Yeah the earth hasn't always looked the way it does now.  65 million years ago the continents were configured completely differently.  And oil is found under the ocean all the time, the ocean is littered with oil rigs.  Water levels fluctuate worldwide constantly.  The crater that's thought to be the meteor impact that killed the dinosaurs is the Chicxulub crater, part of it is above water on the Yucatan peninsula in mexico and the rest is under water.  So at some point the Gulf was propbably above water, at least part of it.





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  • hazmatshazmats Member Posts: 1,081

    they also found oil shale in colorado that is supposed to have more than all that is known to exist in the world.. or that's how i heard it told.

    Oil shale is like solid oil or some crap

  • PhoenixsPhoenixs Member Posts: 2,646

    Originally posted by reavo

    Chevron drills to vast oil reserve in Gulf of Mexico
    The article says that the found the reserve 4 miles below the ocean floor.  I was told that oil comes from dinosaurs and other organic decay.  So, how did the oil get 4 miles below the ocean floor then? 
    What era would that strata be from?  I don't think there was any life on Earth at that stage, was there?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum

    It's correct that oil comes from various organic decay that has been under massive pressure for millions of years. Since the dinosaurs walked on earth there have been ice ages, volcanic eruptions, continents moving around, plate shiftings, earthquakes, sea level changes and much much more. It's not that hard to understand how it all ended up a few miles under the ocean floor.
  • HocheteHochete Member CommonPosts: 1,210
    Not just animal life, oil comes from decomposed plant matter as well.
  • TechleoTechleo Member Posts: 1,984
     Oil also can form at the periphary of the crust. Carbons are found in deep crustal upwellings. This unusual fact has lead to oil from non living matter. Some of this oil can be found mixing in with the post-living oil. Id be curious to see the composition of this particular oil. What can be certain is we have enough oil to last us many centuries at the current level of consumption and discovery. Not to mention the Saudi oil fields are apparenly refilling. Hehe hows that for a irony, they charge us more on oil prospects going down. While the whole time there oil fields are refilling in several locations. Personally I know alot of people around here who are running electric cards, hybrids and bio-desils. Tho I realy like the Ethanols made from the old moonshiner a little north of me. Apparently it burns VERY clean.

  • freethinkerfreethinker Member UncommonPosts: 775


    fossil fuels are hydrocarbons
    formed from the remains of dead plants and animals. Considering how
    dynamic the Earth's oceanic crust is (esp. with plate tectonics), it's not too suprising to find pockets of oil four miles
    down.





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  • PhoenixsPhoenixs Member Posts: 2,646

    Originally posted by Techleo
    (...) While the whole time there oil fields are refilling in several locations. (...)


    How is that possible? It takes millions of years for oil to form. And do you have sources for that?
  • CooktasticoCooktastico Member Posts: 599

    The oceanic crust is only 4 to 6 miles thick. I say keep going and drill to the good stuff like liquid hot maaaagma!

     

  • Vertex1980Vertex1980 Member Posts: 951

    Maaagma.  Hot liquid maaagma.  I love it.

    image
  • TechleoTechleo Member Posts: 1,984
    Generally speaking most of my sources are books from Nasa. Studies on Abiotic Hydrocarbons and there sources. Suffice it theres no real controversy whether or not Abiotic oil can form. After all we can take ch4 or methane to came and condense it with sufficent heat and pressure into oil. What people dont so readily know is that methane exists deep within the planet at that periphary or the mantle and crust. Its not realy a matter of if oil could form, its rather where has it formed. Sadly most of this data was obscured or simply ignored due to the fact professor Gold and the russian regimes used this theory to claim america was using the Peak Oil theories to make a stronger economy and manipulate people. If you read one of Golds claims your scream QUACK! or .. quack quack.. lol. Hrmm heres a example http://www.rense.com/general54/ssust.htm
    Suffice it Id recommend sterring clear of those sites. There mostly propoganda at best. Try your best to get hold of Nasa documents and studies or the USGS records on oil compositions. You'll find plentiful evidence that the origins of all oils are far from certain. Also you need to note both kinds of oul, Biotic and Abiotic can exist on the same planet. The theories compliment each other. Despite the fact two camps of scientists bickering.


  • BlurrBlurr Member UncommonPosts: 2,155

    There's oil all over the place, it's just finding it and extracting it that's the problem. Oil barons are rich because their oil was easy to get to.

    Oil fields will renew themselves, it'll just take far longer than any of us will ever care about. If it takes 40 years to get enough oil to fill your gas tank once, it really doesn't matter does it?

    "Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000

  • BoozbazBoozbaz Member Posts: 1,918

    Originally posted by Vertex1980


    Maaagma.  Hot liquid maaagma.  I love it.
    Quoted for truth. It's not just bio-stuffs that churn into oil, the earth produces the chemicals needed all by itself deep down inside.

    image

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