Re:

[NEIL CLARK <NCLARK@museum.gla.ac.uk>]

Alan wrote:-
<<Tom Gold, famous physicist, suggested that petroleum was not organic
in nature at all. His idea that it was formed chemically inside the earth
was tested by a drilling project (in Norway). As I recall the hypothesis
which appeared in the Atlantic, formation of petroleum was somehow linked
to his model of the earth.>>

I remember this too.  I think that the amount of methane that was 
produced by this method was found to be much lower than he expected 
(although there certainly was some produced from the mantle).  The 
vast bulk of the petroleum and gas has an organic signature and is 
produced from the decomposition of animal and plant life.

Neil

Neil Clark
Curator of Palaeontology
Hunterian Museum
University of Glasgow
email: NCLARK@museum.gla.ac.uk

Mountains are found in erogenous zones.
(Geological Howlers - ed. WDI Rolfe)