>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dr. Blake Nelson [mailto:bnelson301@yahoo.com]
>Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 2:59 AM
>There is a fellow who was featured in the magazine Red
>Herring (I think, or Wired) about two years ago or so
>who has a theory regarding the source of oil, natural
>gas, etc. His theory was not that it was biomass
>generated, but that there was a process through which
>this stuff was made deep in the crust,and then it
>forces itself up through the crust by the same or a
>related process.
>I don't know how much any of this has made it into
>peer reviewed literature.
>
>Now, perhaps, someone who knows about the postulated
>mechanisms involved can comment on this stuff.
>
I am sure that it was Thomas Gold you heard on the radio or read. Gold is a
fascinanting guy who has had about 50% of his great thoughts turn out true.
I think he is correct that methane does outgas from the earth's interior. I
don't think he is correct about oil.
There are molecules which are found in oil which came from various groups of
animals and plants and appear in oils sourced by rocks of ages later than
when those groups appeared. For instance, 24-norcholoestane is a fossil
molecule which is found in diatoms. It is found in oils which are sourced
from Jurassic and later.
"Biomarkers, molecular fossils, are organic compounds in
Holocene to Precambrian sedimentary deposits that can be
related to specific chemical compounds produced in the
biosphere. We demonstrate here that 24-norcholestane
biomarkers, i.e., C26 steranes (saturated hydrocarbons having
a steroid skeleton), can be useful to constrain the age and
paleolatitude of geologic samples. The biological precursors
of 24-norcholoestanes remain unclear, but samples from more
than 100 basins provide evidence that 24-norcholestanes show
an initial increase above background in Jurassic oils, but
they increase dramatically in Cretaceous oils, coincident with
diatom evolution. The highest ratios are found in oils and
rock extracts from Oligocene or younger marine siliceous
source rocks in which the sources were deposited at
paleolatitudes greater than 30o N" ~ A. G. Holba et al, "24-
norcholestanes as Age-sensitive Molecular Fossils," Geology
26(1998):783-786, p. 783
And with dinoflagelates we find chemicals in oils from them:
"An extract of the whole sediment was also prepared and
analyzed for comparison. The whole-rock extract represents
nonpreserved biota and contained higher relative abundances of
dinosterane and 4[alpha]-methyl-24-ethyl-cholestane than the
fossil pyrolysates. This implies that an important component
of the algal community had a dinoflagellate affinity.
Biomarkers are organic molecules that are stable at moderate
temperatures, which can be preserved in rocks even when
recognizable fossils are absent. . . .
"The occurrence of dinoflagellate-related steranes was
also observed in the extracts and kerogen pyrolysates of two
additional samples from the Lower Cambrian Buen Formation in
North Greenland and the upper Riphean Visingo Beds (lower
part) from Sweden. Skiagia and Comasphaeridium, which are
present in the Lukati Formation high-fluorescent fraction, are
dominant in Greenland sample and could be responsible for the
dinosterane and 4[alpha]-methyl-24-ethyl-cholestane liberated
from its kerogen." ~ J. Michael Moldowan and Nina M. Talyzina,
"Biogeochemical Evidence for Dinoflagellate Ancestors in the
Early Cambrian," Science, 281(1998):1168-1170, p. 1169
Land plants evolved in the Devonian and produced a chemical never seen on
earth in any earlier life for. The chemical was vitrain. Vitrain first
appears in oils generated AFTER the Devonian. I attended a conference given
by a friend of mine, Harold Illich, a geochemist. He made the comment that
he could tell a Tertiary oil from earlier oils. He then mentioned that
angiosperms created oleanane which is found in Tertiary oils. I objected
and pointed out that angiosperms evolved in the early Cretaceous. He
replied that I was right but that they were so rare until the last period of
the Cretaceous, the Maastrichtian, that they couldn't contribute much to
oils until then. He then admitted that he would miss on a Maastricthian oil
because it would have oleanane.
We don't find these various chemicals in the sediments or oils until the
various groups evolved. And this is one of the problems which YECs can't
explain within a global flood paradigm.
As to Thomas Gold, he is correct IMO about natural gas, that SOME of it
comes from the mantle. But he is wrong about oil.
glenn
see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
for lots of creation/evolution information
anthropology/geology/paleontology/theology\
personal stories of struggle
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 26 2002 - 16:36:48 EDT