Abiogenic petroleum origin: Encyclopedia II - Abiogenic petroleum origin - Evidence supporting abiogenic theory

Abiogenic petroleum origin - Evidence supporting abiogenic theory

Abiogenic petroleum origin - Supergiant oil fields

Russian geologist Nikolai Kudryavtsev was also a prominent and forceful advocate of the abiogenic theory. He argued that no petroleum resembling the chemical composition of natural crudes has ever been made from plant material in the laboratory under conditions resembling those in nature.

He gave many examples of substantial and sometimes commercial quantities of petroleum being found in crystalline or metamorphic basements, or in sediments directly overlying those. He cited cases in Kansas, California, western Venezuela and Morocco. He also pointed out that oil pools in sedimentary strata are often related to fractures in the basement directly below. This is evidenced by the Ghawar supergiant oil field (Saudi Arabia); the Panhandle Field in Kansas (United States), which also produces helium; the Tengiz Field (Kazakhstan); the White Tiger Field (Vietnam); and innumerable others. The Lost Soldier Field in Wyoming has oil pools, he stated, at every horizon of the geological section, from the Cambrian sandstone overlying the basement to the upper Cretaceous deposits. A flow of oil was also obtained from the basement itself. Hydrocarbon gases, he noted, are not rare in igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Canadian Shield. Petroleum in Precambrian gneiss is encountered in wells on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal. He stressed that petroleum is present, in large or small quantity, but in all horizons below any petroleum accumulation, apparently totally independent of the varied conditions of formation of these horizons. This statement has since become known as "Kudryavtsev's Rule" and many examples of it have been noted in different parts of the world. He concluded that commercial accumulations are simply found where permeable zones are overlaid by impermeable ones. - Kudryavtsev introduced a number of other relevant considerations into the argument. Columns of flames have been seen during the eruptions of some volcanoes, sometimes reaching 500 meters in height, such as during the eruption of Mount Marapi in Sumatra in 1932. (There have been several other instances subsequently.) The eruptions of mud-volcanoes have liberated such large quantities of methane that even the most prolific gasfield underneath should have been exhausted long ago. Also the quantities of mud deposited in some cases would have required eruptions of much more gas than is known in any gasfield anywhere. The water coming up in some instances carries such substances as iodine, bromine and boron that could not have been derived from local sediments, and that exceed the concentrations in seawater one hundred fold. Mud volcanoes are often associated with lava volcanoes, and the typical relationship is that where they are close, the mud volcanoes emit incombustible gases, while the ones further away emit methane. He knew of the occurrence of oil in basement rocks of the Kola Peninsula, and of the surface seeps of oil in the Siljan Ring formation of central Sweden. He noted as mentioned above that the enormous quantities of hydrocarbons in the Athabasca tar sands in Canada would have required vast amounts of source rocks for their generation in the conventional discussion, when in fact no source rocks have been found.

Abiogenic petroleum origin - Extraterrestrial methane

Methane and many other hydrocarbons have been detected at several locations throughout the solar system. Methane is a common component in the makeup of the cosmos, and was likely incorporated into the earth during formation. Alternatively, it may be delivered to Earth in abundance by chondrite meteorites. Extraterrestrial methane is apparently created by abiogenic processes, except possibly on Mars, where extraterrestrial biology may be involved.

Abiogenic petroleum origin - Existence of hydrocarbon deposits

The world’s conventional oil reserves should disappear in no more than one million years, based upon the rate of hydrocarbon seepages.^[6] If there is a limited source of hydrocarbon deposits, in geologic time frames, it is an extraordinary coincidence that deposits exist now. If such deposits are being replenished, their existence becomes less surprising. A crucial question to the bio-organic concept how it may support any mechanism for supplying oil reserves faster than they decay. Geological facts collected from all petroleum-prone basins testify that geologically oil and gas fields were formed very rapidly that contradicts that very protracted period of organic rocks maturation and stadial hydrocarbon migration predicted by bio-organic concept. It is a fundamental observation and main geological contradiction to the conventional bio-organic model.

One believes that abiogenic origin has a hard time explaining why hydrocarbon deposits are not far more widespread than they are as any significant abiogenic source would be quite markedly very large scale. Thinking that mantle volatiles are allegedly rare in the superficial layers of the Earth’s surface it is worth to take into account that solid rocks of lower crust and upper mantle cover vast areas of the dryland (e.g. granulite and ophiolite belts). Moreover, mantle rocks crop out on the ocean floor along the global system of mid-oceanic ridges girding this planet. Also, it is often supposed that geological activity (e.g. earthquakes) would cause massive discharge of hydrocarbons (for example, catastrophic 'oil slicks' in oceans) by rupturing impervious cap rocks. Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider the role of everyday and steady global fluid upward seeping, or so-called cold outgassing, that drives as much as or even much more that catastrophic events. - It is thought this is a somewhat misleading argument because there are evidence of fossil tar pits over a wide range of periods and indeed many of them are important sources of fossils. This indeed proves replenishment of sediments with fossil organic matter through geological time (hundred of millions of years) which biogenic origin only can easily explain. However, it has nothing in common with rapid formation of oil and gas fields (~10-40 thousands of years) and geologically rather fast decay. Moving to the daylight surface (ultimate reservoir and dead end for petroleum) hydrocarbons are quickly disappearing while dissipation, evaporation, extensive oxidation and deep bio-degradation. So the clue to the solution of this problem is in global carbon and hydrogen balance, the flow and exchange rates.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Evidence supporting abiogenic theory", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki