The Deep Hot Biosphere (Hardcover)

by Thomas Gold (Author) "No scientific subject holds more surprises for us than biology..." (more)
Key Phrases: abiogenic theory, petroleum paradox, deep hot biosphere theory, Siljan Ring, New Madrid, United States (more...)

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
As you are aware, my knowledge and experience of natural gas, gained from drilling and operating many of the world's deepest and highest pressure natural gas wells, lends more credence to your ideas than the conventional theories of the biological/thermogenic origin of natural gas. Your theory explains best what we actually encountered in deep drilling operations -- From a letter to the author from Robert A. Hefner III, The GHK Companies, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Because of the controversial nature of his work, he is often denied credit for the trailblazing research he did on the deep hot biosphere, the existence of which could prove to be one of the monumental scientific discoveries of our age. This book serves to set the record straight -- Paul Davies, Physics World, February 1999

Gold's theory, as explained in The Deep Hot Biosphere, offers new and radical ideas to our incomplete notions of what causes earthquakes and where we would look for life in outer space: not on planets, but in them -- Jeanne Mackin, Ithaca Times, May 13, 1999

His university career has taken him to Cambridge, Harvard and Cornell, and through research in zoology, physics, astronomy, radio-physics, space research and cosmology. He is, says Bondi, one of the outstanding scientists of our time. -- Nigel Hawkes, The Times of London, November 25, 1999

I look forward to using it as a resource for the microbial diversity course that I teach -- From a letter to the author from Norman Pace, Professor, University of California, Berkeley

If he is right, the consequences could be dramatic ... This book serves to set the record straight. -- Physics World

In The Deep Hot Biosphere, he reveals evidence supporting a subterranean biosphere and speculates on how energy may be produced in a region void of photosynthesis. He speculates on the ramifications his concepts could have in predicting earthquakes, deciphering Earth's origins, and finding extraterrestrial life. -- Science News, January 16, 1999

The book, The Deep Hot Biosphere, is a real eye-opener. Actually my fundamental reaction is that NONE of this should seem controversial: it makes such good sense that I feel embarrassed for the biology community for not having established this as a fundamental alternate hypothesis 20 years ago. I have a sickening sensation that, in a decade or so, scientists will be looking back on the state of the field at the turn of the century as if we were intellectual barbarians, much the way we look back on those who questioned Darwin's work when it was first presented -- From a letter to the author from John P. Miller, Director, Center of Computational Biology, Montana State University

This is the first book on Thomas Gold's controversial and astonishing theories. In it he describes the creative process by which he synthesizes the scientific evidence that supports his theory and extends his perhaps even more controversial view that petroleum originates from deep within the earth, not from compressed biological matter. -- Oil & Gas Journal, December 7, 1998

Within the scientific community, Gold has a reputation as a brilliantly clever renegade, having put forward radical theories in fields ranging from cosmology to physiology -- Robert Matthews, The Sunday Telegraph, London, January 17, 1999

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 235 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 (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #794,883 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 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 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.

17 of 17 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 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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Turning the World Upside Down, April 18, 1999

By A Customer

The phrase `paradigm shift' gets thrown around pretty loosely these days, but this book represents the real thing. For many years Thomas Gold has been the prime proponent of a theory that, if true, would change many commonly accepted theories in both geology and biology. In short, he believes that "fossil fuels' are generated be deep, underground methane sources that feed a vast subterranean biosphere of bacteria. If Gold is right, a lot of what we have been teaching for the last century is wrong. This is the kind paradigm shift that, literally, would require that the text books be rewritten. Scientists will not accept it unless the evidence is overwhelming. Gold recognizes this and he supports his theory with a great deal of evidence representing several independent lines of reasoning. In my mind, he succeeds in making his case. I opened the book as a skeptic, but I am now convinced that Gold is probably right. I look forward to watching the new consensus emerge.