What geologic time period produced most of the oil we find today?

Answer 1

Depends upon which theory of oil creation you wish to believe. The most popular idea (for sure with the oil companies) is that oil is a result of decaying dinosaurs, perhaps annihilated by some cataclysmic external event. If that's what you'd like to believe, then the answer to this question would be not one time period, but three. Dinosaurs lived in abundance in three periods: Jurassic, Triassic, and Cretaceous. We know more about the Cretaceous period, because rock deposits are much more plentiful and relatively easy to find. But there's no scientific reason to assume that the other periods were any less productive. The main difference in the dinosaurs from the different periods would be physiological...the organism trying to survive in and adapt to the then-current surroundings. BUT.... This entire theory about dinosaurs-to-oil that we've been kicking about is about to collapse, however. First of all, most of what we know as petroleum, was first a tar-like gunk, KEROGEN. (The modern-day name of "Kerosene" comes from this) It was the result of many different forms of plant and animal life decaying, not just dinosaurs. And the most current thinking is that oil was created by single-cell plankton that gathered on the continental shelves, sank to the bottom, and "brewed" there, where conditions were perfect for its doing so. This is about to be supported by some up-to-the-minute research done by the Russians, who have found oil in non-oil-bearing rock. This oil is located about twice as deep as "dinosaur" oil. They are theorizing that oil may have come about from a natural process of the earth, something that was/is occurring throughout time. In other words, oil may not be a fossil fuel at all. Sweden is now running experiments. If this turn out to be correct, then bye-bye OPEC, energy crisis, nukes, air pollution, acid rain and greenhouse gases! Let's hope they're right, and let's send all those oil speculators down to where the real oil is!