While territorial claims are and will likely be heated, what struck me is that the area is right near the Drake Passage, in the Weddell Sea (which is fundamental to the world’s ocean currents AFAIU).
I don’t know how oil drilling in the antarctic could affect the passage, but still, I’m not sure I would trust human oil hunger with a 10ft pole on that one.
Also interestingly, the discovery was made by Russia, which is a somewhat ominous clue about where the current “multi-polar” world and climate change are heading. Antarctica, being an actual continent that thrived with life up until only about 10-30 M yrs ago, is almost certainly full of resources.
ever get the feeling that devil’s blood really is the final “fuck you, mammals!” from the dinosaurs?
From the unicellular algae *
It’s much older than dinos.
til 👍
Congrats on joining the daily 10,000.
BTW there were tar pits present in the Triassic. That’s just how old oil is.
Hell, there are still tar pits with mammoths and dino skeletons stuck in them to this day! I saw them when I was 5, and vaguely remember the Le Brea Tar pits. Apparently I charmed the staff with my knowledge of dinosaurs and which eras they lived in. Of course this was the '80s so they didn’t have feathers yet.
I thought the animals at La Brea were all from the Cenozoic. There are Dinos in there as well?
I’m probably remembering it wrong. I was 5 and obsessed with dinos.
I wish there was a huge tar pot full of exceedingly well preserved Dinos somewhere.
so, quite literally there were non trivial stores of energy dense hydrocarbons available almost immediately after the permian? thats pretty wild.
any real evidence for large amounts of abiogenic oil, or is this still on the weird end of strange?
Sorry, meant to say Jurassic. Oil formation time isn’t consensus yet, but it’s estimated it can take as little as a couple hundred thousand years, so it’s possible there were tar pits in the Triassic. I’m not aware of any evidence to it, but I’m no geologist or archaeologist.
As for abiogenic oil, first I’m hearing of it. Not a clue. Seems fringe.
thanks for the update!
yeah, the abiogenesis idea has been around since the 1950s-ish, I think. it comes and goes, but never seems to get fully debunked. current tepid consensus seems to be that its a plausible earth geo-process, but likely only a very, very minor contributor on this world.
really apprreciate the interaction. :-)