Oil: fossil fuel?

2002/08/14 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Geologia
• Energia

Oil is believed to be a fossil fuel, that is, it is generated by the decomposition of organic matter. Now, however, researchers from the US and Russia are opposing. According to them, the origin of oil is not in animals and plants dead, but in minerals altered by high temperatures and extreme pressures.

The research team has obtained in the laboratory, under the same temperature and pressure as the terrestrial surface, the components of oil with raw materials of non-biological origin. But for many this does not mean that there are so many erroneous theories. And there are those who say that with this research a debate has resurfaced that had long been fossilized. In any case, the journal Nature has released the research.