What natural purpose does petrolium/oil serve?

Oil is mainly zoo plackton right? I have always wandered if oil deposits turned into magma chambers when they came into contact with a "hot spot" from the mantel? Most of the vaocanoes that we know of exist around a "ring of fire". This encompasses the rim of the worlds oceans. Is there any evidence in the geological record that magma chambers could have once been oil deposits?

 

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As for this whole debate over the word "purpose", Oli is right, this word is anthromorphic. A better word would be "function". Every natural system or cycle is made-up of individual constituents. For example, the salinity of the oceans regulate the conveyor belt like currents which circumnavigate the hemispheres. Dose this mean that the purpose of salt is to regulate ocean currents? No it dose not. Salt serves a function in this system. That being said I have to disagree with Fraggle Rocker when he/she says; "Things happen and that's the way they are. Nature has no obligation to make sence to us" (post 23). This sounds more like religion to me. Things don't fall just because that's the way it is. There must be a reason things fall, an underline function which causes things to fall. Dose this mean the purpose of gravity is to make things fall together? No it dose not. Gravity is a function of the overall universal system.

 

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http://www.omichron.com/renewablecrude.html

 

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What mechanism are you proposing that would achieve the following:
1. Convert a suite of complex organic molecules, i.e. molecules based on carbon chains, into a silicate melt, i.e. a suite of inorganic molecules based on silicon.
2. Would enable contact between material located in the top 10km of the crust with hot spots located many kilometres deeper in the mantle.
3. Would create a large continuous volume from the pore spaces within a sedimentary rock.

So, to answer your question, there is zero evidence and absolute proof that it is impossible.

 

I suppose I left the door open for this. I was not implying that crude oil (organic molecules) miraculously transform into molten rock (silicate melt). I was instead musing at the possibility of these two substances coming into contact with each other. We know the Hawaiian Islands are the tallest volcanoes on the face of earth (if you remove the oceans). We also know that a "hot spot" or up welling of hot magma exists directly beneath the island chain. As the crust of the earth drifts over the hot spot a new island is created. What is preventing an oil deposit from being in the path of the next island to be created? What would happen if these two substances were to come into contact with each other? Would a caldera form in an explosive event or would it merely change the composition of any lava? Hawaii may be a weak candidate for such an interaction but can we discount such an interaction from happening?

 

I still have the impression that you think of an oil reservoir as some kind of large void in the ground filled with hydrocarbons. If this is how you imagine things, please dispel that idea at once.

If you were holding a piece of oil reservoir in your hands you would simply be holding a piece of rock. It would normally be sedimentary, either sandstone or carbonate. It would typically have a porosity of between 1% and 15%. It would have an in situ compressive strength of between 10,000 psi and 50,000 psi.

If it were intruded by magma the following changes would occur:
1. Structural deformation of the rock as it was displaced to make way for the magma.
2. Thermal metamorphism of the rock adjacent to and some distance from the magma.
3. Conversion of the hydrocarbons into generally simpler forms.

No massive explosion would result since there would be no mechanism to generate such an explosion. Since a miniscule amount of hydrocarbon would be able to mix with the magma (possibly none) there would be no impact on magma composition in the vast majority of cases.

 

Thank you for your insights Ophiolite. After viewing your reply I decided to read up on this subject (which I know nothing about). I learned quite a bit I didn't know before. I have to agree with your assessment of said interaction based on what I have read. Your impression of my image of an oil reservoir was primarily correct. Thanks for setting me (and others) strait. I had the image of the story of a man named Jed. A poor mountaineer that barely kept his family feed. As the story gose, one day he was out shooting at some food when up from the ground came a bubbling crude. I now know that crude oil is found in sedimentary rock and is usually "capped" with natural gas. Depending on the density of the crude oil, a layer of saline water is usually found directly under most deposits. No need to get into the different varieties of reservoirs seeing as most (if not all) prove your point. This gose to show that anyone can find what there looking for as long as they ask the right questions (and are willing to do a little research themselves).

 

I am glad you found my replies useful. Let me risk one further clarification.

Again, as you have written this, it is misleading. You do not find a layer of saline water below the crude oil. What you find is a layer of rock whose pore spaces are largely filled with saline water, while above is a layer of rock whose pore spaces are largely filled with crude oil.

 

No, it is likely that oil is mainly phytoplankton derived.

Extant phytoplankton produce copious quantities of oil, hence the desire to produce 'algae-oil' as an alternative to petroleum oil. Extensive articles in this area.

 

i had the same question

i was curious about the same thing there should be a reason that oil is where it is. and by removing it from its natural home in the earth what damage to the earth's natural balance will it have. because i think that people are the most dangerous species on this planet. cause we just think about what we need or want to "run our country". which could and should have been done more simply and cheaper. well before we got r selves into this crisis. but that wasn't done cause certain people couldn't have made so much $$$$. but we should step back figure out why oil is where it is and why and the answer would probably show the oil is actually needed to stay in the earth where it originates to ensure the earth natural balance i may not know the reason but i do believe everything is where it belongs then we humans come along and take and take with thinking what may happen if these things are taken from there natural home.

 

lol, been curious myself as to legitamte uses for oil within the earth.. weither burning the stuff reduces the mass of the earth. etc..oil is very dense...And we've converted millions if not trillions of tons of liquid into hundreds of tons of gases.. now floating in our atmosphere and not down close to the center...usually what happens with similar experiments.. is the rotation increases in speed, as well as finding a new pole to rotate on. begining very unstable untill it finds a center or equal balanceing point..

can someone be banned for ignorant, un needed comments? this guy would be a great example...^^

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We now know the earth wont stop or cool down.. in fact it is growing, and shows no signs of slowing down or cooling off..

Oil could be self sustaining but the demand far out weighs the supply, and the time needed to naturally re-supply such vast resivours.. <lol

But we could produce oil, quickly and easily if we had a small machine, that could compress fish scraps.. into an oil.. what other things could produce a liquid fossil fuel..?

 

Why would burning oil reduce the mass of the earth? That is a chemical reaction...which doesn't affect the mass of matter.
Also, oil floats on water, so its density is less than water, and considerably less dense than rock.

RE the "purpose" of oil:
oil serves as a carbon reservoir for the carbon cycle, although Calcium Carbonate (the main component in limestone) is a far greater reservoir for that purpose.

 

I have been trying to research the function of oil in the earth for months now, and no one
offers an explanation, not even a theory. Very curious. It is my suspicion that scientists know what the function is and for monetary reasons are not divulging it. What function does oil serve in your engine? To protect it from overheating. With a molten core, the earth needs the oil deposits to buffer its outer shell from its intense inner heat. And we are pumping it away. And where did oil come from? Study that! Dinosaurs? Earth would have needed dinosaurs stacked hudreds of feet deep to supply the oil we have take out.... what a bunch of bull. We think we are so smart... yet we don't know where oil came from. And no one can tell you the purpose of oil. Of course it has a function within the earth. But what is it? I have already mentioned what my speculation is. Look at where we find vast supplies and ask yourself... why is the oil in that area.... The oil underneath the ice serves to protect the ice from melting from the inner heat of the earth, and the oil beneath the desert serves to protect the intense heat of the sun from combining with the heat arising from the core and causing overheating..... And oil beneath the ocean, perhaps mother nature's storage house. But without a doubt, oil cannot be likened to a pebble orbiting the earth, there is a purpose.... and someone should try to figure out what is is, before it is all used up by ignoran men who turn a blind eye to questioning why it is there.

 

Oil has only one natural function and that is to be made plastic so thousands of years from now when humans and everything they built are gone and an alien race visits Earth they would know that at one time there was an intelligent race on the planet.

Didn't they teach this in high school?

 

andthen,
in order to minimise the investment of my time in writing a response to your post and your time in formulating a reply would you please indicate which of these conditions applies.
a) You are an imaginative fifteen year old with a limited formal education.
b) You are a sock puppet for someone like iceaura, or phlogisitician who is trying to relieve boredom
c) You are a mentally challenged, uneducated waster
d) You are Oil-Is-Mastery (Very similar to c, but more specific)
e) You are a religious fanatic with more agenda than intellect.

Thank you in advance.
Ophiolite

 

Oil is a natural coolant. It cools the earth's layers. It's removal contributes to temperature change. Ocean temp, ground temp, etc.

 

Sock puppet alert!

 

IF...I said "IF" petroleum does serve a function (regardless of whether that function is deliberate or coincidental) for the stability of the status quo of the planet, which might be construed as a "purpose" in a specific point of view, it can, in my personal humble opinion, be only serving as a lubricant for seismic fault zones. I say this not as a result of my hubris, but of my ignorance. I simply cannot think of anything else that it can be "doing" in interaction with its environs.

A lubricant will be enabling relatively easy slipping of one chunk of crust past another, with small or no seismic events (known in vulgar vernacular as earthquakes).

Less lubricant = less or no slipping easy. Jamming up instead.

Less or no slipping easy = no litty bitty earthquakes.

No litty bitty earthquakes = stress builds up. And builds up. And builds up some more.

Stress builds up = WHOPPER earthquake when stress build up finally overcomes resistance to stress.

So, petroleum (or, if you prefer, petrolium, serves the natural purpose, perhaps, of being a kind of an automatic Darwin Award selection committee. If "intelligent" creatures show up and pervert natural function of petrolium, then WHOPPER earthquake is enabled. WHOPPER earthquake disables petrolium perversion by disabling perversion agents, thereby resetting planet back to pre-perverter state.

A little :bugeye: bit speculative. But, it's my story and I'm sticking with it.

 

I believe it is there for a reason

my sister has said for years, we wouldnt have as much earthquakes if they left it in the earth, its a lubricant for the lines in the fault lines

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