The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels [Hardcover]

Thomas Gold (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0387985468 | ISBN-13: 978-0387985466 | Publication Date: November 6, 1998 | Edition: 1

Suppose someone claimed that we are not running out of petroleum? Or that life on Earth began below the surface of our planet? Or that oil and gas are not "fossil fuels"? Or that if we find extraterrestrial life it is likely to be within, not on, other planets? You might expect to hear statements like these from an author of science fiction. But what if they came from a renowned physicist, an indisputably brilliant scientist who has been called "one of the world's most original minds"? In the The Deep Hot Biosphere, Thomas Gold sets forth truly controversial and astonishing theories about where oil and gas come from, and how they acquire their organic "signatures." The conclusions he reaches in this book might be at first difficult to believe, but they are supported by a growing body of evidence, and by the indisputabel stature and seriousness Gold brings to any scientific enterprise. In this book we see a brilliant and boldly orginal thinker, increasingly a rarity in modern science, as he developes a revolutionary new view about the fundamental workings of our planet. Thomas Gold is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and an Emertius Professor at Cornell University. Regarded as one of the most creative and wide-ranging scientists of his generation, he has taughtat Cambridge University and Harvard, and for 20 years was the Director of the Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When scientists discovered thermophiles?primitive microorganisms that live in deep seafloor vents and eat hydrocarbons (chemicals like gasoline)?experts assumed the mysterious bugs had little to tell us about ourselves or about the earth's core. Cornell University Professor Emeritus Gold, however, who for 20 years directed the Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, here proposes the striking theory that "a full functioning... biosphere, feeding on hydrocarbons, exists deep within the earth, and that a primordial source of hydrocarbons lies even deeper." Most scientists think the oil we drill for comes from decomposed prehistoric plants. Gold believes it has been there since the earth's formation, that it supports its own ecosystem far underground and that life there preceded life on the earth's surface. The "deep hot biosphere" hypothesis would explain the thermophiles, the minerals and the oil Swedish drillers found in 1990 under rock where no one expected them. The hot goo and massed gas far under our feet would also explain some mysterious historical earthquakes (notably the New Madrid, Mo., shocker of 1811), and it would tell puzzled geologists why so many oil reserves just happen to sit underneath coal fields. As later chapters explain, if Gold is right, the planet's oil reserves are far larger than policymakers expect, and earthquake-prediction procedures require a shakeup; moreover, astronomers hoping for extraterrestrial contacts might want to stop seeking life on other planets and inquire about life in them.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

From the reviews:

"always original, always important, usually controversial, and usually right"
- FROM THE FOREWORD BY FREEMAN DYSON

"an extraordinary theory from one of the world's most original minds."
- NIGEL HAWKES, THE TIMES, LONDON

"The leading supporter of the abiotic theory in the U.S. is Prof. Thomas Gold of Cornell. His 1999 book, The Deep Hot Biosphere (Springer-Verlag) is a thorough discussion of the issues. It is based in part on research financed by the U.S. Geological Survey. Among prominent scientists whose work supports the abiotic theory are Jean Whelan of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Mahlon Kennicutt of Texas A&M University, and J.F Kenny of the Gas Resources Corporation."
- http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=4092

"There is much to be said about this important book … . Gold exhibits the irreversible and universal genius that we recognize in Aristotle and Leonardo da Vinci. … The versatility and range of knowledge exhibited is remarkable. … The Deep Hot Biosphere is a highly interesting and important book; it should be required reading for every geology student." (David Deming, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 17 (2), 2003)

"Thomas Gold is a physicist who is not afraid of controversy. … His big new theory … is that oil and natural gas are produced by geology and chemistry of the hot deep layers below the Earth’s surface … . The book is the best kind of science writing: contentious and passionate, with all the evidence there for you to weigh up." (New Scientist, August, 2001)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (November 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387985468
• ISBN-13: 978-0387985466
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary science, September 21, 2004

By 

Donald B. Siano (Westfield, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels (Hardcover)

This morning's New York Times featured an article "Methane in Deep Earth: A Possible New Source of Energy" reporting on new research that partly confirms the claim in this book-- that the methane deep in the earth's mantle is primordial (not due to decayed buried vegetation) and is the source of petroleum. The article showed how methane can be generated from water and carbonate rock when the applied pressure is equal to that found in the mantle.

Gold's book describes research done largely by Russians and Ukrainians on the origin of oil, which has been shamefully discounted and ignored in the West. The Western dogma, he claims, is just another one of those things that nearly everyone believes, but is wrong.

I love books like this. It opens up a whole new world of important ideas and questions that need to be addressed, and make the scientific dogmatists who have "proved" their hypothesis by superficial reasoning from the most meager of data, coupled with proof by endless repetition, look as foolish as the geologists who rejected continental drift, or the idiots who still revere Freudian psychoanalysis.

Evidence that he presents is pretty convincing and is a good example of how many diverse lines of evidence can make the convergence on the truth inevitable. Many of the pieces of evidence were quite unknown to the formulators of the "fossil fuel" dogma who emphasize the limited reserves available for extraction. The composition of the gas giant planets with their tremendous quantities of methane can be used to plausibly argue for primordial gas on earth as well. The increasing realization among petroleum geologists that at least some petroleum reservoirs are being filled from below is startling news to many readers. The biological "markers" seen in petroleum are introduced by bacteria to petroleum on its migration toward the surface provide an alternative and plausible explanation of the facts. That Ukraine generates a third of its oil from reservoirs below all sedimentary rock is astounding.

As a physicist at the corporate research labs of a major oil company, I've sat through many presentations of petroleum exploration experts with their tables of C13 data, interpreted as signs of age and origins of oil, and I even then recognized the signs of smoke and mirrors. I only wish I'd read Gold earlier...

Gold's book is also concerned with many other aspects of the consequences of the presence of biology deep within the earth that are just as intriguing. That microbes exist deep in the earth and have a life style entirely independent from photosynthetic energy from the sun is an idea that is only now beginning to be accepted by some of the more daring Western petroleum engineers. Russians have known this for more than fifty years. The idea that better earthquake predictions can be made, and that fossil fuel reserves are much greater than publicized in the popular press, are big, important ideas that would have tremendous political impact if true.

I very much enjoyed Gold's style of writing, which is clear and straightforward, and the story he tells is a very important one, deserving of much more attention and research. The book has a gratifying number of illustrations and is well organized. The notes give a good introduction to the scientific literature on the subject, but I think some criticism can be leveled at Gold for writing as though he had been a major discoverer of many of the pieces of evidence, when he is actually playing more of a role as a popularizer for the findings of the Russians and others. But reviewers, and even popularizers, are not to be sneered at. They play an important and honorable role in the progress of science--Gold does an outstanding job here. Well worth reading.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Convincing arguments for a new paradigm, January 30, 1999

By 

Steven Zoraster (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels (Hardcover)

This is a very well written book. It presents a sequence of inter-related arguments suggesting radical re-thinking of the source of oil and gas on earth, the causes of earthquakes, and the origins of life. The arguments are consistent and to me, with no formal training in chemistry, physics or geology, convincing. What persuaded me most, was the way Gold's arguments tie-in with other research which correlate the discovery of oil and gas deposits with impact craters from asteroids, and many recent reports of new life forms in caves, in rocks, and under the sea. Life forms that thrive independently of solar energy. I have two reasons for giving this book a four star rating, instead of a five star rating. First, geologists I have talked to about the book have presented counter-arguments that might have been foreseen by Gold and answered in this book. (Those arguments have not convinced me Gold is wrong.) Second, the book would have been stronger if Gold had tied in the research I mentioned at the end of the previous paragraph. Still, Gold is only one man! And he writes much better than I do. Buy the book if you are willing to think outside the box.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, February 1, 1999

By A Customer

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This review is from: The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels (Hardcover)

Thomas Gold has written a real eye-opener: Oil and gas, and even black coal, derive from primordial hydrocarbons buried deep in the Earth, dating back to the Earth's formation. He convinced me before I was a third-way through the book. It is beautifully argued, by a world-renowned scientist, who has been working on this origins problem for more than 20 years. If you think that oil and gas come from decomposed organic matter, as the standard explanation has it, then think again -- or better yet, let Thomas Gold walk you through the issues from top to bottom, and let the scales of error fall from your eyes.

Besides hydrocarbons, Thomas Gold also has some very enlightening things to say about earthquakes (chapter 8). The quality of Gold's book, and the magnitude of its enlightening content, reminds me of "Inventing the AIDS Virus" by Peter Duesberg, which I read a few months ago, and which I found similarly enlightening, albeit on an unrelated subject. Both men are gurus: dispellers of darkness. And as with Duesberg's book, the explanatory content in "The Deep Hot Biosphere" is very good: you do not have to be a chemist or geologist or biologist to understand the book: specialist terminology is explained in context as needed.