Are fossil fuels really formed from fossils?

Hydrocarbons have been found in great abundanc  elsewhere in the solar systemwhere there is unlikely to be evidence for life past or present. No fossils involved. Petroleum and natural gas wells that have gone dry 50 years ago, are found replenishing a fraction of their output. No fossils involved. Vast biomass of micro-organisms and extremophiles beneath earth surface estimated to be several times the size of the surface biomass found deriving their chemical energy for life from methane and oxygen pulled from sulfates and ferrous oxides. The source of methane way too deep to come from fossils. No fossils involved. These recent findings and other evidence were foretold by the late scientist and researcher from Cornell, Thomas Gold, who authored "The Deep Hot Biosphere". After seeing evidence of extremeophiles in relative abundance in even the deepest of mines , Gold ties the sub-surface biosphere to the "Deep Earth Gas theory" to show a more plausible primordial explanation of hydrocarbon fuel formation than the generally accepted "fossil" theory. He posits that "Hydrocarbons are not biology reworked by geology (as the traditional view would hold), but rather hydrocarbons are geology reworked by biology." In other words, as in Saturn’s moon Titan and other hydrocarbon rich areas of the solar system, the source of hydrocarbons is primordial; but as they upwell into earth’s outer crust microbial life uses it as energy source. While the details of the Deep Earth Gas Theory are beyond scope of elaboration in this question area, the main points which Dr. Gold supports, and provides evidence for are: Hydrocarbons are primordial. IOW, hydrocarbons like elsewhere in the solar systems are here since the planet's birth. The earth was subjected to only a partial melt. Hydrocarbons are stable to great depth. High pressure greatly stabilizes hydrocarbons against thermal dissociation. Rock at depth contains pores. Primordial hydrocarbons are still upwelling from the deep earth. some sub-points worthy of mention: It more adequately explains why Helium is only present in the earth at any mine-able quantity in natural gas. There are no pure Helium wells. Why the strong association of hydrocarbons with Helium, an inert gas that can have no chemical interactions with fossil organic materials or with hydrocarbons? This is known to geologists as the "Petroleum Paradox" and cannot be explained at all by a sedimentary origin of hydrocarbons. The presently accepted theory of fossil fuels is that the hydrocarbons formed from the decayed remains of ancient organic matter (fossils) that somehow sank down into the deep earth and got trapped in sedimentary rock formations where increased pressures assisted in converting the organic material over time to hydrocarbons. Well, hydrocarbons are found in depths where no surface life remains could have possibly geologically submerged to. The physics of how the ancient organic materials or the resulting hydrocarbons sank deep into the earth have yet to be explained. Also, hydrocarbons have been found in igneous rock formations, which the accepted surface to sediment theory cannot explain. Can we still say that fossil fuels are really from fossils? Reproduced from:

https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/10823/are-fossil-fuels-really-formed-from-fossils/10827

Extremophiles: Hot Environments

Relationship between Organisms and their Environment

The high temperatures and geochemistry found in terrestrial and marine geothermal sites are unique. Volcanically derived gases and products from water–rock reactions support chemolithoautotrophic-based microbial communities in what has been termed the deep, hot biosphere. Endolithic microbial communities are pervasive in these environments and likely contribute significantly to subsurface biomass production, which may constitute a significant portion of the total biomass on the planet. The subsurface biosphere is a largely unknown and untapped natural resource. Thermophiles and hyperthermophiles inhabit these environments and serve as model organisms for microbial processes that occur at high in situ temperatures. Although known hyperthermophiles may comprise only a small minority of the total microbial population in a geothermal environment, their metabolisms are likely reflections of the kinds of processes occurring within them. Because they are typically not found in nongeothermal background fluids, they can serve as tracers of in situ chemical and physical conditions within geothermal environments.

Before one can use these organisms as models of biogeochemical processes in geothermal environments, there are a number of fundamental questions that must be addressed related to the relationship between high-temperature organisms and their environment. For example, what are the physical and chemical constraints on metabolic processes? Are different forms of thermophile and hyperthermophile metabolism spatially and temporally segregated on the basis of fluid chemistry? Clearly, the presence of thermoacidophiles, thermoneutrophiles, and thermoalkaliphiles shows how pH can influence microbial distributions and metabolisms, but can these types of changes be observed on a finer scale even within the same organism? What are the different ways in which organisms assimilate CO2or respire a given compound? Are these differences rooted in environmental factors that favor one metabolism over another? Many hyperthermophiles have a requirement for tungsten to meet the needs of certain enzymes found in central metabolic pathways. Are there other unique cofactors used by these organisms? What do these mean with respect to the natural history of these organisms?

In conclusion, extremophiles from hot environments have moved from mere curiosity to a group of organisms that have significant medical and biotechnological applications and are useful for the study of the evolution and biochemistry of metabolic pathways and the biogeochemistry of geothermal environments. Many thermophiles and most hyperthermophiles belong to the Archaea, which is the third superkingdom of life for which there is still much to be learned. Because physiology and ecology go hand in hand, the continued study of high-temperature organisms from these two perspectives should expand our appreciation for these organisms and the function they have in nature.

Reproduced from. 

J.F. Holden in Encyclopedia of Microbiology, 2009