How Things Work - 326 How fossil fuels were formed Tuesday 23-Jul-13 Coal, oil and gas are called "fossil fuels" because they have been formed from the organic remains of prehistoric plants and animals. Oil and natural gas were formed the same way, but coal was formed a slightly different way. Oil and natural gas come from the remains of tiny plants and animals (plankton) that died in ancient seas between 10 million and 600 million years ago, whereas coal was created by dead remains of trees, ferns and other plants that lived 300 to 400 millions of years ago in swamps covered by seawater. After the organisms died, they sank into the sand and mud at the bottom of the sea. Over the years, the organisms decayed in the sedimentary layers. In these layers, there was little or no oxygen present. So microorganisms broke the remains into carbon-rich compounds that formed organic layers. The organic material mixed with the sediments, forming fine-grained shale, or source rock. As new sedimentary layers were deposited, they exerted intense pressure and heat on the source rock. The heat and pressure distilled the organic material into crude oil and natural gas. The oil flowed from the source rock and accumulated in thicker, more porous limestone or sandstone, called reservoir rock. Movements in the Earth trapped the oil and natural gas in the reservoir rocks between layers of impermeable rock, or cap rock, such as granite or marble.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 07:44:28 +0000
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