Foundations of The Hypotheses
Within the mantle, carbon may exist as hydrocarbons—chiefly methane—and as elemental carbon, carbon dioxide, and carbonates. The abiotic hypothesis is that the full suite of hydrocarbons found in petroleum can be generated in the mantle by abiogenic processes, and these hydrocarbons can migrate out of the mantle into the crust until they escape to the surface or are trapped by impermeable strata, forming petroleum reservoirs.
Abiogenic hypotheses reject the supposition that certain molecules found within petroleum, known as biomarkers, are indicative of the biological origin of petroleum. They contend that these molecules mostly come from microbes feeding on petroleum in its upward migration through the crust, that some of them are found in meteorites, which have presumably never contacted living material, and that some can be generated abiogenically by plausible reactions in petroleum.
The hypothesis is founded primarily upon:
| Proponents | Item |
|---|---|
| Gold | The presence of methane on other planets, meteors, moons and comets |
| Gold, Kenney | Proposed mechanisms of abiotically chemically synthesizing hydrocarbons within the mantle |
| Kudryavtsev, Gold | Hydrocarbon-rich areas tend to be hydrocarbon-rich at many different levels |
| Kudryavtsev, Gold | Petroleum and methane deposits are found in large patterns related to deep-seated large-scale structural features of the crust rather than to the patchwork of sedimentary deposits |
| Gold | Interpretations of the chemical and isotopic composition of natural petroleum |
| Kudryavtsev, Gold | The presence of oil and methane within non-sedimentary rocks upon the Earth |
| Gold | The existence of methane hydrate deposits |
| Gold | Perceived ambiguity in some assumptions and key evidence used in the conventional understanding of petroleum origin. |
| Gold | Bituminous coal creation is based upon deep hydrocarbon seeps |
| Gold | Surface carbon budget and oxygen levels stable over geologic time scales |
| Kudryavtsev, Gold | The biogenic explanation does not explain some hydrocarbon deposit characteristics |
| Szatmari | The distribution of metals in crude oils fits better with upper serpentinized mantle, primitive mantle and chondrite patterns than oceanic and continental crust, and show no correlation with sea water |
| Gold | The association of hydrocarbons with helium, a noble gas |
Read more about this topic: Abiogenic Petroleum Origin
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