Somewhere over Utah
In the airplane, the older man seated next to me was reading a copy of the New Yorker and looking out the window from time to time. "It always surprises me," he said, "that with all the uncultivatable land down there, there is no oil."
Later, he overheard me talking to the man on the other side of me about Africa. "What is it about Africa, that they never managed to figure things out over there?" he said. "Is it a tribal thing?"
Those are two big questions for the skies over Utah. To the first, I said: not the right kind of rock. To the second: uh, which country? African countries are very different from one another… and then was left silent when the two men started talking to each other about how the "black [African] psyche treats women as chattel."
Of course, oil only comes from land where crops can’t be grown and it comes from all land where crops can’t be grown. Can’t you see the logic? Obviously the subsurface architecture and geologic history are the ONLY controls on biological productivity
Comment by sciencewoman — July 28, 2006 @ 10:48 pm
After the first comment I would have been reaching for the headphones. Yikes.
Comment by Pinko Punko — July 29, 2006 @ 1:09 am
OK, so about the oil: for the record: oil forms the following way.
Plants and animalsalgae die and sink to the bottom of the sea. They are covered by dirt. Bacteria begin to break them down. Under increased temperature and pressure conditions, the organic material turns into oil, which is mixed into silt and sand. This migrates into porous rocks. Here’s a link.Oh, and Utah actually accounts for about 1% of US oil production. Who knew? So in the end I learned quite a bit as a result of this exchange (not from the guy on the airplane; I looked it up on the web afterward).
I’m still working on this Africa question. Where to start…?
Comment by drshellie — July 29, 2006 @ 3:21 am
To #2: “Is this how you always start conversations with strangers you meet on the plane?”
Not very clever, but what can I say, it’s been a long day. Hope the rest of the ride was better.
Comment by skookumchick — July 29, 2006 @ 3:24 am
Minor quibble, but most oil is actually dead marine algae, and not plant or animal matter. Coal is mostly plant matter, and the way scientists tell the difference is to separate all the molecules found in oil, and identify those which are unique to certain types of organisms. Biogeochemistry and molecular fossils are a relatively new, exciting (for people who like looking at rocks all day) field of geological research.
Comment by Lab Lemming — July 29, 2006 @ 9:33 am
Lab Lemming: fixed– thanks!
Comment by drshellie — July 29, 2006 @ 2:39 pm