Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-08-24
What Petroleum Is.

Inc CASUAL VlSlUOr 70 the pennsylvania
OIL region, as he views the greasy fluid
gushing from its rich reservoirs, two
Thousand feet below the surface, finds
himself involuntarily asking the primal
question, Where does it come from, and
now and where was it formed? A puz-
zhng question. surely, and, if PROFOUND.
ed to any competent and thorough
geologist, would only elicit shake OF
the head, and the brief reply that he
didn't know. But however careful the
scientific man may be about advancing
theory that the discoveries of to-mor.
row may knock higher than kite, the
average Yankee never allows conun.
drum OF this kind to be propounded to
MIN without making one or more at.
tempts at guessing it. The difficult
question OF the origin of petroleum has
not seemed to his prolific mind too bic
to be grappled with, and at present two
popular theories exist in regard to this
interesting subject, each of which has
its strenuous advocates.
The first of these theories holds that
the rock in which the oil is now found is
the parent rock in which it originated.
The Pennsylvania oil rocks are a series
OF sand rocks of varying thickness, scat
tered somewhat irregularly over the
northwestern part of the State, and
prolific in oil atdepths below the surface
varying from five hundred to two thou
sand feet. Originally they were depos-
tied by the action of water, either as
long stretches of sea-beach or immense
sand-bars formed by eddying and
whirling currents. The advocates of
the parent-rock theory maintain that
along with this sand was deposited Or
ganic vegetable or animal matter, which,
by the chemical action of the succeeding
ages, has been transformed into oil and
gas, and kept stored in these hermetic-
ally-sealed reservoirs until the searching
drill of the enterprising oil-operator
should penetrate its hidden chambers
and bring it forth to light an inquiring
and busy world.
In confirmation of this theory its
advocates point to the coal deposits,
which are now generally considered to
have originated from a vast deposit of
vegetable matter which grew and
decomposed for ages, and then, by the
combined action of heat and enormous
pressure, were packed away in solid
masses to provide the future fuel for
the world. A chemical analysis of the
two articles, coal and petroleum, dis
closes the fact that they contain nearly
the same elemental ingredients, in
slightly different proportions, perhaps,
but practically the same, the only real
difference consisting in the fact that
one is now solid and the
other a fluid. As the oil is
found at distance of from one thou
sand to two thousand feet below the
prolific coal measures, and, if deposited
along with the sand rock in which it is
now found, must be many ages older
than the coal deposits, it is argued that
the immensely longer period since its
original deposit, and the higher tenn
perature to which it is subjected by its
greater depth below the surface, may
easily account for the chemical action
necessary to make it a fluid instead of a
solid, as in the case ofcoal.
The second and more generally ac-
cepted theory is that the petroleum is
formed by the constant distillation of
gas from the underlying carbonaceous
shales of the Silurian period, which in
the Pennsylvania oil region are sup
posed to lie at sufficient depth to be
subjected to high temperature and to
be constantly generating gases. If this
theory is accepted, the conditions neces-
sary for the formation of petroleum de-
posts are three-fold. First, geological
horizon deep enough below the surface
to generate gases by the operations of
internal heat; second, horizon of
proper temperature for the purposes of
condensation, and third, a reservoir for
storing the condensed petroleum. The
advocates of this theory claim that these
lower shales lie at the proper depth to
fill the first of these conditions, and that
the gas thus generated, being very light
and of a peculiarly penetrating nature,
arises through the crevices and assures
of the everything rocks until it reaches
the horizon of condensation, which they
claim. according to developments made
by the drill, varies in distance from five
hundred to two thousand feet below the
surface. The third condition is fulfilled
according to this theory by these sand
rocks, which, lying within the horizon
OF condensation and being of porous
nature, hold the condensed petroleum
as a sponge holds water. These rocks
are Theoretically sealed at the top by an
impervious shell, which prevents the
lighter portions of the oil and gas from
escaping to the surface until this shell is
DeneCr3teO Oy tne oii-opefdhoT uTli.
when it gIishes forth with astonishing
force. IF this theory is correct, then in
all probability the process of formation
is constantly in operation, though pro-
ceeding at verv slow rate, the immense
deposits lately discovered being the slow
accretion of untold ages.
The advocates of this theory fortify
themselves by the statement that the
series of Devonian rocks in which the
oil deposits are now found extend over
a great deal of territory in which the
drill fails to find oil, and that if the
theory of original deposit of the petrol
cum producing matter along with these
same deposits were true then the oil
should be found wherever the rock is
found. On the contrary, they claim the
rock NAV exist where there are no11nder
living shales to produce the petroleum
gases, or the everything strata may be