Customer Reviews

The Deep Hot Biosphere : The Myth of Fossil Fuels

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Deep Hot Biosphere by Thomas Gold is described most often as an argument that oil is more plentiful than commonly thought. Gold does argue this point, based on his belief that hydrocarbons are not biological in origin and are found not only in the shallow crust of the earth but also at greater depths. He maintains that hydrocarbons, especially methane, were an important constituent of the earth when it was formed and are widely distributed in depth. These deep hydrocarbon deposits continuously replenish the shallower deposits.

The quantity and distribution of oil is only one piece of the picture Gold paints of the earth's formation, its chemical composition, and the development of primitive forms of life. Here are some on his key hypotheses, which I have taken the liberty of reorganizing in a more or less chronological order:

1. The earth was formed by the aggregation of cold solid materials rather than hot gaseous materials. Under this hypothesis, the earth would have lacked an atmosphere until its mass was sufficiently large to produce a gravitational field strong enough to capture gas molecules that escaped from the interior of the planet or were deposited along with other space debris. As the earth grew in size, the interior heated up due to the increased pressure.

2. Based on spectral analysis of other planets and their moons, methane is a fairly common constituent of these bodies. Analysis of meteorites also supports the presence of methane in the matter that accumulated to form the earth. Methane is chemically stable at the high temperatures and pressures found at depths down to 300 km in non-volcanic areas. Being light and fluid, it tends to rise through the rock layers until it either escapes into the atmosphere or is trapped under an impervious rock layer. As a result of seepage, the earth's first atmosphere was rich in methane. Meanwhile, the increased temperature and pressure in the earth's interior produced longer hydrocarbon chains from methane molecules.

3. Analysis of thermal vents in the deep ocean and cold petroleum seepages on the shallower ocean floor has revealed forms of bacteria that rely on hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane, for food. These bacteria, of the Archaea domain, thrive at temperatures as high as 100-150 degrees C and do not depend on photosynthesis. The genomes of Archaea suggest they developed very early in the evolution of life. Gold concluded that Archaea probably developed deep underground, rather than on or near the surface, reflecting his choice of the book's title. In consuming methane, the Archaea produced carbon dioxide and water which also migrated to the surface and were added to the atmosphere. Water in the liquid state became more plentiful.

4. Once the atmosphere contained sufficient concentrations of carbon dioxide and water, and liquid water was plentiful, life based on photosynthesis evolved on or near the earth's surface (since it requires sunlight). These life forms consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, resulting in yet another change to the composition of the atmosphere.

I was attracted to this book because I remember being told, at the age of about seven, that oil came from dinosaur bodies that were transformed over time by heat and pressure into oil. I remember being skeptical, even at that age, because I couldn't understand why all those dinosaurs would have gone to the same place to die. So, what do I think now? I'm still skeptical of the fossil theory and find Gold's arguments somewhat more convincing. However, his deep hot biosphere hypothesis is not generally accepted by the scientific community. His book is not a scientific exposition and is unlikely to sway that community. Rather, it is written to advocate his position, is highly repetitive, and is not very well organized. On the other hand, Gold is no crank; he's a respected physicist. Perhaps his book will stimulate further scientific research aimed at testing both the fossil and the deep hot biosphere hypotheses. For now, I'll lean in Gold's direction but await further evidence.

My late Father worked at Argonne National Labs, a National research think-tank. My hitch in the Navy (Never Again Volunteer Yourself) was up and I returned home to attend College (1980). My Father came home one day asking me if I wanted to attend a seminar at Argonne where an astrophysicist, by the name of Thomas Gold, was to present an "earth shaking", new theory on the origin of oil, natural gas and coal.

I attended the seminar. Dr. Gold started out, "I always thought it strange that before the dinosaurs died, the majority of them hiked to Saudi Arabia!" I lost track of him for years, recently, discovered his last book, "The Deep Hot Biospere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels".

The core of the earth is constantly giving off gasses, Dr. Gold termed it "out-gassing"; methane and carbon dioxide being the most abundant. As these various hydrocarbons rise through pores in the rock, they encounter proven life forms that love to eat methane. These life forms, as a bi-product, leave behind the fuels we use; oil, natural gas and coal. Oil companies have capped "drained" oil wells, only to come back thirty years later to find they are full again!

I have found it to be written user friendly, contains a good dose of humor, and lays out an incredible theory, with volumes of empirical data to support his thoughts. "To ask a living cell to accept all the energy one photon contains is like asking a baseball outfielder to catch bullets from a machine gun!!"

He convinced the Swedish Government to bank roll a very deep drilling operation into rock formations that geologists deemed impossible for oil to exist. They went down 5 or 6K, discovered oil and pumped it to the surface. In this oil, were to be found the remains of microbes, thermopiles, that live at great depth. He, and others, theorizes that there is ,exponentialy, more biomass in the earth then on the surface of the earth! These proven life-forms are the source of biologically derived molecules that other scientists exclaimed where the proof that oil was derived from surface biological sources, i.e. dino- powered; when in fact, they were waste products from a newly discovered biosphere, "The Deep Hot Biosphere".

Dr. Gold claims that part of the problem is a "mental" condition. He deemed that condition "surface chauvinism" i.e., if life exists, it had to have originated on the surface!

Diamonds, due to the pressure required to form them, can only be formed at 150 k below the surface. How do they get to or near the surface? He explains.

Earthquakes, not just a thing of "plates". He theorizes that the major source of this action is due to incredible pressure build up of gasses below our feet.

Water? I had the privilege of cave diving in northern Florida. The limestone bedrock is honey combed with tunnels that have no end. These tunnels run VERY close, in spots, to the surface and,from time to time, create sink holes and springs. The beauty of these springs can only be experienced, for there are no words that do it justice. MILLIONS of gallons of water per second flows out of a single spring. It is absolutely pure, clear as air water; a constant temperature of 72 degrees F. The source of this water is unknown. Some speculate that this aquifer starts in Canada, but, then again, that thought was only a scientifically wild-butt guess (SWAG). Range magazine, recently, ran an article about Las Vegas coming to an aquifer near you! The article went on to talk about a little known, massive, aquifer found 4-5,000 ft below the surface in Nevada. An, apparently, endless source of water.

(Pg, 88 of Gold's book) "To begin with, simple chemistry and physics tell us that hydrocarbons will suffer a loss of hydrogen on their way up through the crust. Why is this so? First, any opportunity for a stray (or microbially catalyzed) oxygen atom to interact with a hydrocarbon fluid of any sort will result in that fluid losing two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen atom encountered, thus generating water. This represents nothing more than a drive toward chemical equilibrium."

I have heard "SWAG's" concerning how earth acquired liquid water, e.g., comets crashing to the primordial earth, depositing their tank loads to the surface, etc. If Gold is right, and there is an amazing amount of information that supports his thoughts, our water is generated deep inside the earth; that these huge aquifers are not water that has found its way to depth, but water that was formed at depth.

He addresses the origin of life; where did it begin? He observed that the surface of the earth is the extreme environment for life to habitat, where as, in the deep hot biosphere, conditions vary little. Which biosphere would make the better incubator?

I find his book INCREDIBLY attractive to read due to his numerous observations of nature at work that everyone else stared at, trampled on and rolled over, but only he saw. He had an open mind to how things work vs. how the world demands it to be.

Finally, with all of his prestigious credentials, Journals and other organizations refused to print his papers. The following paragraph sums his thoughts towards that problem.

"Most men can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it obliges them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven thread by thread into the fabric of their lives."

I highly recommend this book, not as a proof, but rather, as a means to stimulate more individuals to question the current litany. To scrutinize the surface connection to oil is tantamount to heresy. I am giving a copy of it to my daughter's high school Chemistry teacher.


Rhoda Cargill

.

This book is more than a mere milestone. If approached with an open mind, it will revolutionize much traditional thinking in the areas of energy, seismology, and the life sciences.

Professor Gold is an astrophysicist of high repute, who applies his excellent, free-thinking mind and impeccable logic to disciplines outside his chosen field with astonishing success. This disturbs traditionalists and adherents of scientific orthodoxy no end, especially when Dr. Gold, more often than not, is correct in his iconoclasms.

The instant work presents and consolidates Dr. Gold's seminal work in the area of earth sciences. Dr. Gold argues convincingly, and with easily understood reasoning, that petroleum, and even coal, are not biogenic, i.e., created from previously living organisms. Instead, he contends, so-called "fossil fuels" are the result of hydrocarbons being brought up from and through the earth's mantle, and being transformed into their present states by bacteria living in the Earth's crust. These bacteria compose the "deep, hot biosphere" in the book's title. Thus, fossil fuels are a self-renewing resource not nearly as susceptible to the depletion so often forecast by doomsayers.

Dr. Gold's logic appears impeccable to this writer, and the tests he has done to date, such as drilling in the granite of a large Swedish impact structure and finding hydrocarbons where none "should" exist are persuasive indeed. The popular conception of oil, gas, and coal being the remains of once living creatures seems hopelessly out of date in light of Dr. Gold's research.

Dr. Gold goes on to discuss the origin of life, as it relates to microorganisms found in the earth's crust and asks whether these primitive creatures may exist on other planets as well.

Another interesting theory arising from the implications of mobile hydrocarbons in the Earth's interior relates to earthquakes and their prediction. Dr. Gold notes many cultures have spoken of physical changes occuring prior to earthquakes and suggests that these tangible phenomena are related to gases moving in the crust. When a critical point is reached in terms of shifting tensions, Dr. Gold suggests the result is an earthquake.

Interestingly, much Russian research agrees with Dr. Gold on this and other of his theories. Western research appears more bound to orthodox thinking. It is this writer's belief that Dr. Gold and his cohorts have much to say on the true state of the planet beneath us, and its contents.

The book receives my highest recommendation, and it will be interesting to see how much of Dr. Gold's thinking becomes the scientific orthodoxy of the future. The book is rated a must read for anyone with an interest ie earth sceiences, energy issues, or both.

Thomas Gold is no stranger to controversy, and this is book is about as controversial as it gets. He has a habit of unleashing a firestorm of whenever he publishes a new book, but Gold has this annoying tendency to be right most of the time. If what Gold says is true, then even the term "fossil fuels" would have to be dropped. Gold's theory is too involved to go into in a short review but basically he contends that petroleum is promordial and currently supports biological activity in the Earth and is not the converted remains of ancient life after a few million years of decomposition. Gold presents compelling evidence that is hard to refute. In addition, these theories explain the presence of compostion of mineral enriched earth as an a few other mysteries such as the presence of helium which has been so far unexplained by conventional ideas. One thing about Gold is that he backs up everyting he says with sufficent evidence to convince most skeptics ( except the ones with a lot to lose).

If Gold's ideas are true then thousands of textbooks will have to scrapped and re-written - which of course explains the widespread resistance by the scientific community to this idea.

The principles of science are supposed to be observe, theorize, test and predict. If your theory is true then it can make a valid prediction. After reading the book I am convinced that Gold is right.

After reading a few of the references I also discovered that the conventional theory of oil and gas creation has no real evidence to back it up. The conventional theory fails in between the testing and predicting phases. As Gold points out, so far no one has ever been able to come up with the chemical reactions needed to form petroleum from decaying organic matter. I found this book fascinating and well written even for the non-technical person. The issues are well presented and backup up with meticulous notes and backup data.

I would recommend this book to anyone, and I am sure this page will accumlate several "reviews" from people who have never read it challenging the data, but I suggest that you make up your own mind. You will find Gold to be very convincing.


***

Update

It appears as if the Russians are making monkeys out of us westerners. They noow have over 300 ultra deep oil wells producing oil from as far down as 40,000 feet. Way beyond any possibility of finding sludge from dead dinosaurs and old rotting cabbage patches. Russia is now the worlds #1 oil producer handily surpassing Saudi Arabia. Speaking Of Saudi Arabia - known reserve estimates there have been increased yet again.

The skeptics continue to amuse and embarass themselves as Viet Nam now joins the club of oil producing nations pumping from areas western "experts" proclaimed oil-free based on geology.

Eugene Island is an underwater mountain located about 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. It is refilling itself from deep fissures.

Jean Whelan, a geochemist and senior researcher with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute assigned to study the Eugene field. Becoming familiar with the phenomenon, she said " . . .. I believe there is a huge system of oil just migrating deep underground"

By every measure - known oil reserves are INCREASING despite vastly increased demand.

Gold was right again.

The author of this book proposes that much, if not all of the oil and gas we are reaping from the Earth today, is not all derived from ancient fossils now decomposed, but an amalgam of hydrocarbons left over from the initial accumulation of solar nebular and interstellar matter that accumulated to form Earth. As much as this is intended (I presume) by the author to be a popularized book on science, there are many chapters that I suspect would be considered by most lay people and maybe some non-Earth scientists to be chewy or very technical and therefore tedious to read. But the author, just as I would recommend, suggests to his readers to skip the middle chapters for the meatier summaries that occur in the latter half of the book. Being a geologist myself, I read the whole book - of course.

Earth scientists have long known that the material that formed Earth since its formation has slowly (and to some, rapidly) separated out into various mixtures of metals, minerals and liquids (into various layers like the Mantle), with lighter materials rising and denser materials settling. Since hydrocarbons are some of the lightest materials in Earth, they would naturally rise to or near to the surface of the earth.

Gold, who is a scientist himself, and unfortunately now deceased, having passed away recently, has developed many theories outside his main area of technical expertise that have been proven correct (and some not so correct to be fair). That said, his theory here on oil and gas development, is a very serious and deserving contribution to geology that should be read by all geologists and those concerned about the origins of and the amount of oil and gas remaining in Earth. Given the concerns about the process of these important commodities and the threats of their supply coming to an end, a serious debate on this theory should be considered.

As a geologist, I find his theory interesting and while I am not sure that there is a never ending supply of oil and gas, even if it's origins lay deep inside the earth and are not derived from dead animals and plants, this is a theory that is a joy to read about, as much as it is a possible important contribution to science. His story is one that resounds in the geologic world as much as in the scientific world - that being one of the application of the scientific method and the presentation of a new theory that goes in the face of a current long-held and cherished theory. Having lived through the debates of Plate Tectonics from its initial teachings in schools to it being accepted without almost any questions now, I am always in favor of letting the unusual theory, if well supported by facts and the use of the scientific method, to be heard and seriously debated without negative and unruly discourse. Having seen first hand, well-educated PhDs scream and swear at each other in public forums over scientific theories, suggests to me something of not questioning the facts and data, but of holding to theories to closely, even when the facts suggest something else.

In the end, this is a good book about how science proceeds and how scientists develop and present their theories, no matter how off-beat they may seem to the current population of scientists. I whole-heartedly recommend this book if you want to know more about the oil and gas world.

At first glance, this book struck me as highly suspicious. However, once I began reading it, I quickly came to seriously consider Gold's thesis as tenable. By the end of the book, I was strongly inclined to think that Gold has a much more credible explanation for the source and formation of oil and gas than the de facto one.

Gold does write convincingly, but moreso he presents some very cogent reasons for his abiogenic theory. I'll not attempt to rehash the details, but just say that his theory is parsimonious, involves little hand-waving and uses no dramatics.

There is nothing scientifically outlandish here, unless you have some ideological adherence to the biogenic view. In fact, the biogenic view seems now quite contrived and dubious in retrospect. Gold's view accounts not only for oil, coal and gas, but also confers reasons for formations of biogenic matter - peat and lignite - as well.

Gold's further assertion that a biosphere exists going many kilometers down may have seemed ludicrous years ago, but in light of our knowledge of extremophiles nowadays, his thesis seems very plausible.

As if that weren't going far enough, Gold further asserts that it is far more likely that (assuming life had a terrestrial origin) such life began deep in the earth, not in shallow tidepools or other surface environments. Any origin-of-life theory is very difficult to justify, but Gold's seems as plausible as any, and more plausible than most.

A worthwhile read.

According to Tommy Gold, "a critical attitude is clearly required of every seeker of truth." And one must criticize both old ideas and new ones. Gold was terrific at doing precisely this in his scientific career.

A major part of this book is about planetary subsurface life. Gold argues that life on Earth has a subsurface origin, that photosynthesis was an offshoot of subsurface life, and that the origin of terrestrial hydrocarbons is primarily primordial.

The author begins by describing hyperthermophilic life near hot ocean vents. Gold calls this environment a borderline region between the surface and subsurface worlds. He also asks where such life gets its oxygen. He answers that organisms spend some energy to grab oxygen from sulfates (which also releases it for use by other organisms). And he explains that these organisms get their energy back with interest when they use that oxygen to process hydrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide.

Right now, petroleum is generally regarded as a "fossil fuel." However, it has never been clear that most petroleum is derived from living organisms. The biogenic theory of petroleum became accepted because it seemed likely that any primordial petroleum would have been oxidized by high temperature rocks that made up the early Earth. However, there is now evidence that suggests that the Earth was, um, not so hot back then (it only partially melted). There is also evidence that hydrocarbons are primordial and that they are stable at great depth. Gold also tells us that rock at depth contains pores and that hydrocarbons are still upwelling.

Finally, the author cites the fact that 84 barrels of oil were drilled from a depth of 6 kilometers in a purely granitic and igneous region of Sweden. Remains of living organisms should have had no access whatsoever to this place. So Gold may indeed be right about the abiogenic origin of much of the world's petroleum. Does all this mean that this planet has more oil than we previously thought? It could. Still, even if it does, much of that oil could be tough to get to, especially if we want it quickly.

Gold concludes with some speculations about the nature of earthquakes, about the origin of life, and about the possibilities for subsurface extraterrestrial life.

I highly recommend this interesting book.

I have long believed that oil depletion is a serious issue that could derail our economy sooner than most people think. When promoting this view on internet bulletin boards, people would occasionally respond that Thomas Gold has shown that oil comes from abiotic sources deep within the earth, not from biological sources, and we hence we have plenty, no need to worry.

I have at last gotten around to reading this book. He makes a stronger case than I would have guessed. He also thinks through a number of issues related to his theory in an inventive and interesting way. He argues that earth's first organism was more likely to have evolved underground than on the surface, and makes a pretty good case.

But some of the evidence he provides doesn't really support his contention. For instance, he argues that many earthquakes are due to sudden releases of vast quantities of natural gas, rather than due to plate tectonics. After reading the evidence he brings forth on this, I agree that this is likely a cause of some earthquakes. But this doesn't prove that oil or natural gas comes from abiotic sources, nor does it prove that we have plenty of it.

Gold believes that if oil is bubbling up from middle earth and isn't dependent on ancient plant or animal life for its creation, then we ought to have plenty of it. This doesn't actually follow. If loads of the stuff was bubbling up, we would have more natural oil seeps than we do.

Gold believes that we are discovering vast new amounts of oil all the time and that old oil fields are refilling. Most geologists disagree. We are now burning more oil than we discover, and have been since the early 1980s. What Gold sees as growing reserves, are in many cases not supported by the facts. For instance, in the late 80s most OPEC nations vastly increased their reported reserves. This wasn't due to new drilling that found new oil - it was a ploy to allow them to pump more oil in accordance with OPEC rules that fixed oil production to a percentage of reserves.

Gold doesn't examine the issue of oil in a quantitative manner at all. He believes that oil is abiotic and assumes that means we have plenty of it. He has marshalled some interesting evidence in favor of his theory, but comes up short on analyzing what this means in terms of oil depletion.

If you choose to read this book, you should balance it off with "The Party's Over" or "The Coming Oil Crisis" or "GeoDestinies".

I can't say enough about this book and how much it impressed me. As a PhD student in chemistry, I would say this book raises some very valuable points. While the ideas presented have been introduced prior to this book (several russion journals) this adds new evidence and data suggesting that our petroleum resources are not from decomposed biological material and that we need to re-evaluate this idea. Love it.

I started reading this book with a completely different understanding (even a prejudice) of oil genesis.
The reasonings make sense and the observations described are compelling.
As a scientist in a different field I am not sure that what presented is the complete picture, and that some parts may be mistaken, but I have a strong feeling that the fundamental idea is correct.
Oil, or at least part of it, is likely a relic of Earth's genesis.