On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 11:36:19AM -0700, glen e. p. ropella wrote: > Thus spake Jochen Fromm circa 10/26/2008 07:25 AM: > > http://blog.cas-group.net/2008/10/the-true-crisis-is-still-to-come/ > > I'm currently reading "The Deep Hot Biosphere" and Gold presents a > pretty persuasive argument that the hydrocarbons (oil, methane, coal, > ...) we burn for energy are not (mostly) fossil fuels. I'm still too > ignorant to have my own opinion on whether the hydrocarbons are [a]biogenic. > > But I wonder how you guys think abiogenic origins of hydrocarbons would > affect "peak oil"? On the one hand, if oil is percolating up from deep > sources, although still finite, the estimates of the total amount of oil > we can exploit would rise significantly. (And much of the peak oil > problem would be solvable through new technologies for getting at the > oil.) But on the other hand, our burn rate, being exponential, will > eventually outpace production rates, despite advances in extraction > technology. >
One of the interesting thoughts I had about Thomas Gold's theory was that supposedly all of the oxygen in the atmosphere is biogenic. For every oxygen molecule floating around in the atmosphere, a carbon atom must be locked up somewhere, presumably mostly as hydrocarbons. The other main biogenic carbon store are carbonates, but these have 3 oxygen atoms attached to each carbon atom. So there is a very real question - where did all the carbon go? Being buried in the mantle seems very likely by subduction, so suddenly Thomas Gold's theory of hydrocarbons becoming trapped under ancient shield crusts looks plausible. The only thing he'd be wrong on is the issue of it being abiotic in origin. As to using the stuff up for fuel, assuming we ever found it, that would be the height of irresponsibility. We do not want to go back to a reducing atmosphere like Venus or Mars. Life as we know it, would simply cease to be. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A/Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Mathematics UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Australia http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
