Oil

[fatalbert]

When i was a kid we where taught that oil comes from old plants that millions of years ago died, then over those years turned to oil.Now, man has been pumping this stuff out for over 100 years ,it seems to me that is an awful lot of dead plants.Plus how come it got so far underground out in the middle of the seas.Surely not all the sea beds used to be land.Could oil be being produced by another process,ie something to do with the rocks and minerals and the volcanic temperatures deep below the crust.....Neil

[himupnorth]

Think you've got your lessons mixed up a bit. Coal is formed from vegetation, oil is formed from the soft body parts of squillions (that's a lot) of tiny sea creatures which died, sank to the bottom got stuck in the mud and couldn't decay fully (needs oxygen etc.) millions of years getting squashed and there you are: gallons of 20/50. Actually it is a bit more complex than that but they are the basics.

[rojash]

Nice to see someone else who knows the meaning of "squillions"... I'm always getting told off forr using it.