The Deep-Earth Gas Theory vs. the Fossil Fuel Theory

   

Reproduced from:

Meta Research Bulletin On-Line

2007 Sept. 15 issue

      

Petroleum, coal, and methane are the most commonly known of the hydrocarbons. Carbon and hydrogen combine in molecules in a variety of shapes and sizes to form the hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are believed to be the decomposed remnants of life; dinosaurs, and of all the plants and animals that lived on the earth millions of years ago. High-carbon hydrocarbons form coal in sedimentary layers, believed to be the decomposed remnants of ancient swamps. Carbon in its purest form becomes graphite, and under extreme pressures, diamonds. In sedimentary strata deep and shallow, organic material and living organisms are found in petroleum and other hydrocarbons. Methane, the primary ingredient in “natural gas,” and the simplest and most abundant of the hydrocarbons found on earth, is also thought to be solely the product of biological activity. Methane is known to be the by-product of the metabolism of certain animals and micro-organisms.

          But astronomers have found methane to be abundant in the atmospheres of the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, where no life is known to exist. Moreover, spectral analysis reveals that methane is a commonly occurring substance in the universe, found in many planets and asteroids. Instead of serving as a reality check for the biogenic or “fossil fuel” theory for hydrocarbons on earth, which was formulated in the nineteenth century when much less was known about the formation and composition of other planets; this discovery prompted speculations that life must exist on Jupiter. Gold draws a different conclusion:

It would be surprising indeed if the earth had obtained its hydrocarbons only from a (biological source). While the planetary bodies bereft of surface life would have to receive their hydrocarbon gifts by purely abiogenic causes. (46, parenthesis added, all page references from, The Deep Hot Biosphere)

          One of Gold’s major premises, reflected in the title of his book, The Deep Hot Biosphere, ^[3], is that bacteria-like micro-organisms can live in the extreme pressures of the deep earth, and by extension, possibly also in the interiors of other planets as well, and that these bacteria can “eat” or metabolize non-organic hydrocarbons as an energy source, provided that oxygen is readily available. Moreover, he proposes that these organisms may have first evolved deep inside the earth, and may have been the progenitors of all life on the surface of the earth. Thus he offers two mutually interdependent paradigm challenging theories at once, which are synthesized and extended by him from preliminary work done by others. They are interrelated because organic residue, and even life, is known to be associated with hydrocarbons on earth.

         But the crucial question for us is which came first: If hydrocarbons are the remnants of decomposed surface plant and animal life, then they should be found only in or near the sedimentary surface rock layers of the earth, and only in very limited quantities. But if Hydrocarbons are primordial and originally non-organic, that is, if they are naturally occurring molecular substances found in the universe, then the way we should search for them, where we should expect to find them, and in what amounts, will be very different. In the abiogenic theory there should be vast supplies of petroleum and almost limitless supplies of methane found in the deep reaches of the earth, far below the crustal sedimentary layers. And, of course, if the biogenic theory is correct, we should be running out of our preciously scarce “fossil fuels” very soon. In a candid world of open-minded science, this should be a hot topic, and a key question in the forefront of scientific debate, but we rarely here of it.

From:

http://metaresearch.org/publications/bulletin/2007issues/0915/Mrb07cp5.asp