Oil Made Really Simple

The source of oil, as well as the natural gas that is often found close by, is not complicated at all. When segments of continent collide as the original continent of Pangaea broke apart, the rock strata is forced upward along the collision frontier. The result is ranges of mountains.

However, sometimes not all the force of the collision goes into creating mountains. Rock strata adjacent to the ranges of mountains formed by collisions may be forced upward as well but not to such an extent as to form mountains, this creates vast underground pockets. Oil and natural gas collected in pockets under the ground millions of years ago.

The way to find such sources of energy today is to search for these pockets. When vast layers of rock strata are forced upward by the collisions of segments of continent, it creates corresponding gaps in the rock strata under the ground. This is where oil and natural gas collected and is found today. Oil does not collect under the mountains themselves because they weigh too much to allow gaps underneath them but under adjacent rock strata that was also forced upward during the collision that formed the mountains.

The massive northward continental movement of the Caucasus Mountains and the mountains across northern Iran forced up adjacent layers of rock strata. As described in the posting on this blog, "The Story Of Planet Earth", this line of high and extensive mountains from Greece to central Asia is what I call the Original Impact Line from the Second Continental Asteroid. the section of it across Turkey and Iran was pushed tectonically northward by the collision of the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. This created gaps underneath in which oil collected and is why there is an abundance of oil all around the Caspian Sea. In a similar way, Africa collided with southern Europe while drifting northward, forcing rock layers upward resulting in oil in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and, Libya, as well as a field of natural gas in Algeria.

Africa was also moving eastward and the plate collision that resulted formed the mountains of Ethiopia and the oil deposit in it's Ogaden region.

Sometimes, these underground gaps form where entire plates move relative to one another as opposed to simple segments of continent. The oil along the northwest coast of South America formed from such a collision as did that of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia.

The Rocky Mountains are so much higher than the Appalaichians simply because they are younger. But, erosion is not the only factor in the height of mountains. Another factor is the width of the colliding continental segments that formed the mountains and the way that the force of the collision was dissipated in raising adjacent rock layers. I notice that the width of the land undergoing the collision is very important in determining whether rock layers adjacent to the collision frontier will be forced upward in such a way as to leave gaps for oil or natural gas to collect.

If the land mass is narrow, such as India colliding with Asia to form the Himalayas or Argentina colliding with the Pacific Plate to form the Andes, the force of the collision is likely to go entirely into building the mountains instead of being dissipated in raising adjacent rock layers which would leave underground gaps in which oil could collect. This is why India and Argentina have very high mountains but Argentina has only a little bit of oil and India has none. There is no oil around the Alps because most of the force of collision went into forming the mountains.

Thus, I would like to introduce my oil probability formula. The probability of finding oil or natural gas underground is roughly equal to the width of a segment of continent involved in a collision divided by the height of the mountains produced by the collision.

 The tectonic collision of the Arabian Peninsula with Asia caused the force of the movement of the mountains of Turkey and Iran northward to go into raising layers of rock strata where Russia's and Kazakhstan's oil and gas collected. North America's force of collision did not all go into raising the Rockies. This is why there is oil from Texas to Kansas to Alberta, although not as much as there is in Russia and this is also why the Rockies are not as high as the Himalayas, where almost all the force of India's tectonic collision with Asia went into raising the mountains.

There are some special cases that do not fit neatly into this scenario. All along the Gulf Coast in the U.S. and Mexico is an abundance of oil. This has not formed by the kind of collisions that raise mountains but has collected in gaps that were created when the land of Mexico and Central America was curled around because it collided with an eastern portion of the Pacific Plate before the rest of North America did. This can easily be seen on a map.

Another special case seems to be the oil along the coast of Nigeria and neighboring countries and some on the coast of Brazil opposite in South America. My speculation is that this oil collected in gaps that were formed as Africa and South America were thrust apart by the underlying volcanic activity that formed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Hopefully now, you find both oil and mountains to be much simpler. Just remember that this process does not cover mountains created by volcanic activity, but those are much less common than those created by continental collisions. In finding out why oil is located where it is, we also uncover a lot about how the earth's surface formed.