Oil Oil is one of the most important products of the modern age Vehicles depend on it for fuel and it is essential for the manufacturing of many goods If oil supplies suddenly ran out modern life would grind to a halt at least for now Petroleum The word petroleum is Latin for rock oil which means oil found inside rocks Petroleum is the main source of gas and diesel fuel for cars and trucks It is also used in the generation of electricity in power stations and in the manufacturing of products such as plastics and car tires Petroleum is the resource we will follow from oil rig to gas pump Renewable and non renewable Petroleum is a non renewable energy source The sun wind and ocean waves are renewable energy sources because they will never run out Petroleum can only be used once and one day it will all be used up Large quantities of petroleum are extracted from rocks underneath the seabed
Oil from the olive tree is mostly used for cooking but it can also be used as biofuel for cars Nodding donkeys One of the most iconic images of the oil industry is said to look like a nodding donkey It is a pump that pulls oil from a well It was a common sight in the oil booms of the early 1900s and large numbers of these pumps can still be seen today silently nodding away in oll rich areas Animal and plant oils Animals and plants also provide different types of oil Cod liver oil is made from cod fish and people take it to boost their intake of vitamins Plant or vegetable oils are made from nuts seeds and fruits and include olive oil sunflower oil and coconut oil These oils are mainly used for cooking but some plant oils can be turned into biofuel and used to power cars and trucks
Oil origins Ancient plankton is the basic ingredient of oil Petroleum is made from the fossilized remains of creatures that lived up to 180 million years ago Most were plankton from ancient seas and lakes but larger animals such as dinosaurs probably formed part of the remains as well For this reason petroleum is known as a fossil fuel Oil formation Petroleum formed when the dead bodies of living things fell to the seabed Over time layer upon layer of sand and mud covered them Then over millions of years high temperatures and intense pressure cooked the remains This formed the liquid petroleum and natural gas that is now hidden within rocks deep underground Oil seeps Most petroleum is locked away deep beneath the earth but sometimes cracks in the rocks allow some oil to escape to the surface These are known as oil or petroleum seeps They can occur on land or beneath the sea and often produce bitumen which is also known as asphalt or tar Tar has been used by people for centuries for many different purposes
Asphalt lakes are a mix of asphalt natural gas water sand and clay Animal trap Asphalt volcanoes An asphalt volcano was first discovered in 2003 on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico Asphalt volcanoes are undersea mountains that form over oil seeps oozing from the seabed They erupt bitumen natural gas and liquid petroleum instead of lava Asphalt volcanoes and their resources have yet to be explored A tar pit or asphalt lake is a petroleum seep where asphalt forms a thick black sticky lake on the surface of Earth The most famous are the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles There the bones of prehistoric animals such as saber toothed cats dire wolves and mastodons have been preserved The animals probably fell accidentally Into the asphalt became trapped and then died there DID YOU KNOW Trinidad's Pitch Lake is the largest asphalt lake in the world It covers an area the size of nearly 50 football fields and is 249 ft 76 m deep in the center
