how come there are oil deposits at north pole

[vandivx]

recently Russians went to north pole and dived down... probably everybody knows the story<br /><br />one idea is they want to claim natural resources out there and the region is supposed to have some 25% of the world oil resources which they want to tap<br /><br />now I got to thinking how did those oil and gas deposits come to be there, does it mean north pole region was worm and flourishing with forests in the remote past? what was the weather like at equator then in those days?<br /><br />or did the deposits move there with shifting continental shelf or something like that?<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Continental drift would be a good place to start.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[enigma10]

Continental drift and pole shifting. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"<font color="#333399">An organism at war with itself is a doomed organism." - Carl Sagan</font></em> </div>

 

[symbolite]

Due to the techtonic plates all around the earth the continents drift around over millions of years. It is likley this region was once at the equator a long long time ago. 250 Mil Years ago all the continents were connected (called Pangaea) and drifted apart to where they are today. Before that there was likly other occurances of supercontinents, another known one was Rodinia. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[vandivx]

as I suspected, I heard about Pangea and that sort of thing but didn't know how extensive shifting that was or what went on before that<br /><br />also pole might have shifted around, I suppose poles actually exchange places completely but that doesn't move the crust of the Earth I think, only crust shifting can move it around to (or from) temperate climates away from always cold polar region<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[enigma10]

<i><font color="yellow">According to Earth's geologic record, our planet's magnetic field flips, on average, about once every 200,000 years. The time between reversals varies widely, however. The last time Earth's magnetic field flipped was about 780,000 years ago.</font></i><br /><br />LINK- http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0909_040909_earthmagfield.html<br /><br /> <i><font color="yellow">Scientists believe the magnetic field is generated deep inside the Earth where the heat of the planet's solid inner core churns a liquid outer core of iron and nickel. <br /><br />The solid inner core is thought to be a mass of iron about the size of the moon that is heated to several thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Heat radiated by this inner core builds up at its boundary with Earth's liquid outer core, causing the fluid there to expand. <br /><br />"When it expands it becomes a little less dense [and more] buoyant. So it starts to rise. That's convection," Glatzmaier said. "Hot fluid rises, then cools off and sinks again."<br /></font></i><br /><br /> The pole shifting would be very likely to affect tectonic plate activities, though it would be hard to say by how much. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"<font color="#333399">An organism at war with itself is a doomed organism." - Carl Sagan</font></em> </div>

 

[derekmcd]

I don't believe the Earth's magnetic field would have much if any effect on creating the type of environment at the north pole to create oil and natural gas deposits over lengthy geological time periods.<br /><br />The pole shifting that would be properly attributed to such a climate is one in which the actual axis of the earth has changed shifting the arctic region to a more temperate latitude. Another might be the precession of the earth's current axis. Both of these would affect the climate in the current arctic regions. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>

 

[enigma10]

No. The point i was making was such a shift could influence tectonic plate activities, even act as a driving force for some dramatic changes. As to affecting the enviroment, or climate...<br /><br /><i><font color="yellow">Earth's geodynamo creates a magnetic field that shields most of the habited parts of our planet from charged particles that come mostly from the sun. The field deflects the speeding particles toward Earth's Poles. <br /><br />Without our planet's magnetic field, Earth would be subjected to more cosmic radiation. The increase could knock out power grids, scramble the communications systems on spacecraft, temporarily widen atmospheric ozone holes, and generate more aurora activity. <br /></font></i><br /><br />From article linked in earlier post. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"<font color="#333399">An organism at war with itself is a doomed organism." - Carl Sagan</font></em> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

There is no reason why sediments deposited in polar marine environments would not be potential sources rocks for oil. Polar seas are often highly productive, which means abundant organic matter in sediments.<br /><br />As to why the Russians are exploring, why shouldn't they? If they can demonstrate geological continuity and technical capability they can legitimately lay claim to areas beyond the normal 200 mile EEZ under the law of the sea, as other countries have done. It's going to be a long time before any oil reserves in the area - if they exist at all - are going to be extractable, by which time their existing known reserves will be depleted. I think it is a very justifiable policy on their part.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

There's no reason to think a shift in the magnetic poles would have any effect on tectonics.<br />I can't even think of a possible mechanism. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[enigma10]

In short. Increased convection activity.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"<font color="#333399">An organism at war with itself is a doomed organism." - Carl Sagan</font></em> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Sorry, how can a magnetic field change increase convection?<br /><br />I don't see any way for it to do so. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[ihwip]

Am I the only one that subscribes to the 'cataclysm' version of oil creation? This is where violent events create oil en masse rather than over millions of years.<br /><br />Anyway, if this theory were correct it is possible that the oil at the North pole was created from the devastating effects of the flips in the magnetic field of the Earth. I would assume that it would create pretty severe Earthquakes and therefore oil.<br /><br />Just a thought.

 

[MeteorWayne]

YES <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[vandivx]

you mean arctic sea plankton and microbial plant life being deposited in sediments? I would think that wouldn't be enough although I have to say I only have high school like knowledge about these things or even lesser than that, I thought for significant oil deposits one has to have trees or thick growth of some greenery that gets burried in all kinds of processes and there never was significant enough plant life in polar region I think, that's why I asked for opinion, didn't think plate tectonics would be moving all over the place to carry oil deposits all the way up there<br /><br />we had a brush in other thread (can't immediately recall what it was about just now but I remember it happened) and you take negative approach commenting on what I say here because of that I believe, else why that thing about Russians, I never intimated one way or another whether I think its good or not for them to claim those oil or other reserves although I do have an opinion on that, I was just puzzled that there should be oil in polar regions (although it appears from other posts here that the supposed oil reserves would be much further south from north pole region)<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[enigma10]

This article explains the theory a little better than i could.<br /><br />http://www.eps.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/jp/COE21/results/result1/Hamano.pdf<br /><br />Don't worry. It's english. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"<font color="#333399">An organism at war with itself is a doomed organism." - Carl Sagan</font></em> </div>

 

[dragon04]

55 million years ago, during the Eocene, the region of what is now the Arctic Ocean was subtropical and full of life.<br /><br />I don't know the underlying geology of the sea bed there, but there was plenty of organic material available. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

Oil can come from many sources, but most is produced from plankton, either in the ocean or lakes. Some can come from benthic (bottom dwelling) organisms like algae, but that is a minority.<br /><br />To get oil you first need high prouctivity. This is a feature of polar waters at least at present because of high productivity. that is why some of the world's richest fisheries are in the polar regions.<br /><br />Then you need to preserve the organic matter. This means reducing bottom waters, and a stratigied water column. At present this only happens naturally in some lakes and the Black Sea. In the past though there have been epochs when the entire ocean has been stratified. This way the organic matter can be buried and preserved, rather than be destroyed by dissolved oxygen and consumed by other critters.<br /><br />Large plant accumulations produce coal rather than oil. Some coals also produce gas, sometimes in significant amounts. Small amounts of oil can be found in some coal deposits if the plants were waxy and/or there were lakes full of algae in the coal forming environment.<br /><br />The Arctic certainly was warmer in the past, like the Eocene, as some have mentioned. I am not sure what age the sediments are that the Russians think might be prospective.<br /><br />There are producing oil fields in the Arctic. The Alaskan north slope for example, and there has been exploration in both the Canadian arctic archipelago and in northern Siberia, both onshore and offshore.<br /><br />Hope this helps<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

You are right. The ocean basins themselves are relatively unprospective, mainly because they are so thing and there is an absence of good resevoirs and traps. But ocean rises and plateaux and the outer margins of continents are a different story.<br /><br />Of course the technology to extract oil from such depths does not exist yet, particularly under ice cover. If it even exists, which we don't know. Of course by the time the technology is available there may not be any ice cover....<br /><br />But exploration companies need security of sovereignity to explore, which is what the Russians are doing. By collecting the data and spending the money they are laying the ground work for a valid claim under the International Law of the Sea provisions. Australia did something very similar a few years ago. Its claim was successful too.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>