Arizona state miner., 1919-08-15
Friday, Aug. IS, 1919
J OIL FORMATIONS ]
No One Knows How They
Were Formed.


oil stock manipulation were better un-
derstood the investor would be both
wiser and richer-richer not because of
fortunes made, but of earnings saved.
While the chemical composition of oil
or petroleum is we'll known, no one
knows how it was formed. The many
theories in explanation of it's origin can
be devided into two classes; those ad-
vanced by chemists and those by geolo-
glsts. All agree that time, heat, pres
sure and water were necessary to form
oil. The chemist seeks the explanation
along the lines of his own research. To
him the earth is vast laboratory, in
which minerals and earth under certain
conditions will yield oil. While these
vague theories appear to have some
foundation, they do not explain the oc-
currance in the majority of cases.
The theories advanced by the geolo-
gists are accepted as more reasonable.
According to them the origin of oil is
found in animal or vegetable matter,
which was embedded in the sand and
later covered with layer of mud, silt,
lime or fine sand, which by time and
pressure became hardened into shale,
limestone and sandstone There are
four theories which explain nearly every
occurance of oil.
1. The sea weed theory-if in ages
past great beds of kelp such as now
thrive along the coast of California
were buried in sediment and distilled
with favorable conditions, large amount
of oil would have been produced
2. The land plant theory-Since it is
definitely known that coal was formed
from forests and plants that once grew
in the marshy plains and swamps of lake
beds, it is very probable that similar
forests under different conditions of
heat and pressure formed oil instead of
coal.
3. The Diatom theory-Diatoms are
minute organisms that have existed in
great quantities in the seas and lakes
from earliest ages. The carboniferous
shale contained great quantities og di-
atoms. Oil is usually found in these
shales, therefore oil must have been
formed from the Diatoms. Mud, clay
or silt hardened by time and great
pressure are called shale.
A Tho o0o1 tLo0~u Wboo ooo1 20 J;o
titled in the laboratory it produces hy-
drocarbons which are also the costitu-
ents of oil; the sopposition is that with
the right conditions, nature has pro-
duced oil by distilling the coal beds.
This theory is Strengthened by the fact
that coal is often found in oil fields.
Altho little is known of the manner
in which oil is formed there is consider
able accurate knowledge of how and
where it occurs.
Biologists tell US that ages and ages
ago, when the world was in it's infancy
there were many stretches of shallow
lakes or inland seas in the United States,
as we'll as all countries. AS the water
receded, great marshes we're left,
where in time dense tropical forests or
jungles grew up. The descendants of
those forests still exist but they are
dwarfs compared to the trees of those
primeval days. There were great fern
trees, and horse tails that were then
giants, and ground pine that grew to
ninety feet in height. Of these forests,
generation succeeded generation until
the loam or rdecaying vegetation ranged
from few to many hundred feet deep.
In the coal mines tree trunks are
sometimes found standing in the ident-
ical spot where they grew, and extend
ing thru several strata of rock and sand
dense groves of cane turned into coal
still stand intact and the imprints OF
ferns and leaves are found between
layers of shale and sandstone. Scien-
fists thus know for certainty many OF
the kinds of trees and plants that grew
during the carboniferous period.
After while the floods came, bear
ing great quantities of coarse sand and
covered up these forests with shallow
lakes for long periods Of time; soft mud
or fine sand was deposited in the bottom
of these lakes, and sometimes there
were deposits of limestone from the
tiny water animals, which covered up
these submerged forests. Hundreds of
years passed and again the water re-
turned and again the marshes were