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Walking through Time A Pedestrian in Time

Chasing the origins of Oil James L Bradley

August 14th

, 2011Chasing the origins of Oil

It runs modern society along with fueling most serious political tensions than any other 

substance on our world today, the question still remains on where does in really originate, and

exactly what is left for our rapidly increasing consumption. It is believed that nature has been

converting ancient dead life into the much sought after “black gold” for millions of years creating

it with a little more than heat, pressure and time – at least that is what our learned scholars tell us.

Albeit fuel prices across the world are spiking, and there are the experts who tell us in too many

reports to cite is that we running out – our scientists still can’t tell us with any level of certainty

where and how it came into being, how long it took and how much there really is left for our 

monsters that cruise the highways and byways of our planet, heat our home or are additives to our 

daily dose of medicine.

There seems to be numerous theories related to the ignitable fuel, whereas we normally label it

as a “fossil fuel” along with coal and natural gas, which most in the field believed it was

transformed from long dead organisms – you know, where a majority of it came from the

“fossils” of plants and tiny “marine” organisms – albeit some think we can throw a large animal

into the mix here and there, a dinosaur or two may have wandered into the formula is not a far 

fetched idea but most think they would have made a “small” and “insignificant” contribution.

The other theory running about is that there is more oil in the Earth, created in the early days of 

the Planets beginning, that has yet to be tapped.

The number one theory, “dead stuff”, accumulated on the bottom of oceans, riverbeds or 

swamps, mixing with mud and sand. Over time, additional sediments piled on top of the dead

stuff and as it was buried, the pressure created heat transforming the “dead stuff” into kerogen – 

whereas left to their own devices kerogen will eventually crack, breaking into shorter and lighter 

molecules composed “almost” solely of “carbon” and “hydrogen” – and depending on how liquidor gaseous the mixture is will cause the chemical mixture to either form petroleum or natural gas.

What kind of times span is involved – our boys in the know aren’t really sure but the guess in

the order of hundreds of thousands of years – in other words don’t run down to the sea shore and

throw a dead plant or animal in the surf and expect to collect your gallon of oil the next day.

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This theory of “dead stuff” being the grandfather of our world’s oil is called the “biogenic

theory”, first laid on the table by Georgius Agricola, a German scholar and scientist, to be further 

supported by Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humbold almost 250 years ago,

albeit German by birth he was a Russian scientist.

From the same part of the planet in the 1950s emerged the other theory, the “abiogenic theory”

that petroleum might seep upward through cracks formed by “asteroid” impacts to form

underground pools – in this there was a semi-rush to explore ancient impact craters for signs of 

oil. There has been “some” abiogenic sources of oil found, but never in any appreciable amount

to make it commercially viable. That there is a controversy over the theory, which revolves

around whether “naturally” forming oil reserves does exist at all, but how much they contribute to

the Earth’s overall reserves and how much time and effort should geologist devote to looking for 

them. In other words don’t expect ExxonMobile to be pawing around Winslow, Arizona.

What if we found large reserves? Scientists then agree that it would mean Earth does indeed

have vast reserves of “untapped” petroleum, and consider that since other rocky objects from the

same raw material as on Earth, than it might be possible that crude oil on other planets or moons

would possibly exist.

Regardless “both” processes take literally thousands of years, meaning if the Earth does contain

far more oil than we currently believe – it will eventually dry up, hopefully we’ll have another 

form of locomotion, making plastic bags, and adding to the hundreds of items we use on a daily

 basis. Another hope is that we survive the turmoil that will be created by certain members of our 

society who derive their income and handsome profits in the control and distribution of the “black 

gold.”

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According to our scholars 650 million years ago during the Late Proterzoic era our home-world

was mostly oceans – with a bump or two of land mass peeking up from the depths – and since

today we seem to be concentrating on the close to the surface, high quality oil in Iraq (now

suffering its 7th War in modern times for its control) I’ll track the region in my synopsis of our 

 precious oil.

It is said that it was during this time-period that the accumulation of marine sediments was well

underway whereas animals with hard shells settled down in the deeps, along with previous animal

species although microscopic in size – normally labeled “ichnofossils”. In the preceding map the

 brown represents the land, and off into the upper left-hand side of the group you’ll see the

Arabian Peninsula just below South China (under water), and for you Alaska fans it’s situated on

the lower right hand side of the globe.

Throughout the history of our home-world, there have been more than one time when the

continental land mass joined to form what we call a “super-continent”, where over time they

again broke and drifted apart – some maintain that early in Earth’s life a collision with an extra-

terrestrial body which broke off a piece to form our moon, shook the Earth to its core creating the

tectonic plates that over years and year drifted about on its hot outer core. There is a name for 

this cycle, the “Wilson Cycle”, where in a recent one about 1000 to 830 million years ago most

continental mass formed the super-continent “’Rodinia”. Before that there was another super-

continent called Nuna or Columbia – which was assembled by another global scale collision

event. As for being the latest, the tectonic processes similar to today “must” have been active

during the Proterozoic era.

After the breakup of “Rodinia” beginning around 800 Ma, it is “possible” the continents

hooked up again around 550 Ma – forming a “hypothetical” super-continent our scholars

sometimes refer to as “Pannotia” or “Vendia” – where it joined the land masses of Africa, South

America, Antarctica and Australia – however, that combination of continental land masses was

not complete, since the continent “Laurentia” (sort of equivalent to North America) had already

started breaking off around 610 MA – one thing is pretty certain that by the end of the Proterozic

eon, most of the continental mass lay united in a position around the South Pole.

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The “Cambrian” is the 1st geological period of the “Paleozoic” Era which is estimated to last

from 542 Ma to 488.3 Ma, it was followed by the “Ordovician” – scholars have yet to determine a

concrete definition of the period whereas opinions and finding are constantly moving – it was

named (established) by Adam Sedgwick naming it after Cambria (the Latin name for Wales)

where Britain’s Cambrian rocks are best exposed.

In looking at the above map, Arabia is off to the right below the equator now placed left of India and joined with Gondwana – with 1/3 rd of more of its land mass still beneath the sea. The

Laurentia (North America) is in the middle of the map straddling the equator with Alaska the

northernmost tip.

This Era is unique in its high proportion of sites are well preserved, where the soft parts of 

organisms along with their hard shells are accessible to modern science…because of this, our 

scholars note that the period surpasses in biological finds even into later periods.

Prior to this era life on Earth was mostly on the “small” scale and very “simple”, following this

complex organisms gradually become more common in them “preceding” the Cambrian,

however, it was not until the Cambrian that mineralization showed up, where fossilized

organisms became more common. The diversification of life-forms was relatively rapid, whereas

the scholars have termed the event the “Cambrian Explosion”.

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This huge increase in many diverse forms of life is believed to have produced the 1st

representatives of many of our modern forms, representing the evolutionary stems (roots) of 

modern groups of species.

Although it thought that life was abundant in the oceans, many believe the land was barren,

with nothing more than a microbial “crud” known as ‘soil crust’ (in other words the makings of 

our modern day politicians) covering the land. The theory is that based on our limited evidence

(in some ones mind) there is a suggestion that a few animals bumped around on land, while most

of the exposed land mass resembled deserts spanning horizon to horizon. Shallow seas flanked

the margins of several continents created during the breakup of the supercontinent “Pannotia”.

The seas were relatively warm, therefore there was no polar ice for much of this era.

While life prospered in the oceans, the land was barren – with nothing more than a

microbial 'crud' known as soil crust covering the land. Apart from some tentative evidencesuggesting that a few animals foundered around on land, most of the continents resembled

deserts spanning from horizon to horizon. Shallow seas flanked the margins of several

continents created during the breakup of the supercontinent Pannotia. The seas wererelatively warm, and polar ice was absent for much of the era.

The United States Federal Geographic Data Committee uses a "barred capital C" character 

similar to the capital letter  Ukrainian Ye ‹Є› to represent the Cambrian Period.[9] The

 proper [10] glyph is a proposed addition to the Unicode standard at code point 

The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from 542 ± 0.3 to488.3 ± 1.7 Ma ago (ICS, 2004,[5] chart); it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its

subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established byAdam Sedgwick , who named it after  Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's

Cambrian rocks are best exposed.[6]

The Cambrian is unique in its unusually high proportion of lagerstätten. These are sites of 

exceptional preservation, where 'soft' parts of organisms are preserved as well as their moreresistant shells. This means that our understanding of the Cambrian biology surpasses that

of some later periods.[7]

The Cambrian Period marked a profound change in life on Earth; prior to the Cambrian era,life was on the whole small and simple. Complex organisms gradually became morecommon in the millions of years immediately preceding the Cambrian, but it was not until

this period that mineralised – hence readily fossilised – organisms became common. [8] This

diversification of lifeforms was relatively rapid, and is termed the Cambrian explosion.This vast increase in diverse forms of life produced the first representatives of many

modern phyla, representing the evolutionary stems of modern groups of species. While life

 prospered in the oceans, the land was barren – with nothing more than a microbial 'crud'

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known as soil crust covering the land. Apart from some tentative evidence suggesting that a

few animals foundered around on land, most of the continents resembled deserts spanning

from horizon to horizon. Shallow seas flanked the margins of several continents createdduring the breakup of the supercontinent Pannotia. The seas were relatively warm, and

 polar ice was absent for much of the era.

The United States Federal Geographic Data Committee uses a "barred capital C" character 

similar to the capital letter  Ukrainian Ye ‹Є› to represent the Cambrian Period.[9] The proper [10] glyph is a proposed addition to the Unicode standard at code point 

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