Click here to go to the plate tectonics animation page. Click here to go to the geology potpourri animation page. Layers gradually compact, then fold, then fault. Oil migrates into traps created by the folds from layers below. Seismic profile is generated that is used to make a cross section of rock layers and oil hidden beneath the subsurface.
Oil rigs drill and remove hydrocarbons.
This site is a cooperative endeavor of the US Geological Survey Western Earth Surface Processes Team and the National Park Service .