The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1920-03-19
Government Survey Warns Public

The peak of an industrial boom is
invariably accompanied by wild specu-
lation in mining securities. The present
period of initiation in oil production is
no exception to the roll
Is there oil in co. relcial quantities
near Washington?
Almost certainly not. if the kind Of
science that the big oil companies en-
ploy is to be believed by the general
public.
Hardly single geologic condition is
favorable for the accumulation of oil
near Washington. The usual requi-
sltesfor an oil pool are lacking, and no
reputable geologist would advise the
expenditure of money under these con-
ditioDs.
Much of the unwarranted boosting
throughout the United States relates
to areas in which there may at best be
only small chance of finding oil, and
in which the local business men are
aroused to believe that drilling will lead
to the discovery of great sources of
wealth in oil in the home vicinity or
county. Propositions of this class are
scattered widespread over the country
and no one but the Federal and State
Geological Surveys appears to feel any
responsibility in protecting the limo.
cent, and for the most part, small in
investor.
Remarkable as it may seem, one of
these attacks of local oil excitement
seems to have struck Washington.
One prospective" oil field'' is located
less than ten miles from the dome of
the Capitol. Advertisements that re
fer to the U. S. Supreme Court and the
U. S, Geological Survey in large type
do not necessarily thereby prove the
oil character Of the lands near the Nat
ional Capital. Nor does the increasing
demand for oil make the chances any
better of finding it where Nature did
not put it.
The facts are: near Washington the
sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous and
Tertiary age dip gently eastward and
are underlain at relatively shallow
depth by hard crystal schists and
GRANTEES. These latter nowhere con
tain oil. The oil-bearing beds found in
West Virginia and Pennsylvania are
not present in this region. The Creta
ceous and Tertiary beds comprise sands
clays, and marls, and are we'll exposed
around Washington. Indications OF
petroleum have never been observed
even in these beds by the Government
biologists who have critically mapped
and studied the region. Moreover,
streams have cut so deeply into these
nearly fiat beds near Washington that
had any petroleum ever existed itiwould
have readily escaped and been lost
Furthermore, the structure of the rock
east of Washington is such that Oil
would not accumulate. Folds in the
rock domes or anticlines nearly always
present in commercial oil pools are
lacking east Washington, where they
would readily have been observed had
they been present.
On every count, therefore, the search
for oil near and east of Washington is
to be discouraged. Speculation in such
projects is to be deplored. Those I'M
aware ones who invest in such projects
usually the least able to bear the prac-
tically certain loss of their hard-earned
savings. No person who can not view
with perfect complacency the entire
loss of mis- money should invest in the
stock of oil companies purporting to
exploit oil fields near Washington, if
indeed anywhere else, and the Geologi
cal Survey feels called upon to warn
the public of the extra hazardous char
acter of exploration for oil in eastern.
Maryland. 1t may be added that il
this statement the Federal Survey con-
ours in general with the opinion already
expressed by the State Geologi cal Sur
vey of Maryland.