A petroleum seep is a place where natural liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons escape to the earth's atmosphere and surface, normally under low pressure or flow. Seeps generally occur above either terrestrial or offshore petroleum accumulation structures. The hydrocarbons may escape along geological layers, or across them through fractures and fissures in the rock, or directly from an outcrop of oil-bearing rock.
Petroleum seeps are quite common in such areas of the world and have been known and exploited by mankind since paleolithic times. Natural products associated with these seeps include bitumen, pitch, asphalt and tar. The occurrence of petroleum was often included in location names that developed; these locations are also associated with early exploitation as well as scientific and technological developments, which have grown into the petroleum industry.
Read more about Petroleum Seep: Ancient Knowledge and Finds, More Modern Associations, Theory, California Seeps
Famous quotes containing the word seep:
“Pushkin’s composition is first of all and above all a phenomenon of style, and it is from this flowered rim that I have surveyed its seep of Arcadian country, the serpentine gleam of its imported brooks, the miniature blizzards imprisoned in round crystal, and the many-hued levels of literary parody blending in the melting distance.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)