To: Moominoid who wrote (2109 ) 7/23/2001 2:17:07 PM From: Chip McVickar Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 12411 Well..., I'm not a scientist, so I cannot argue with you on a professional basis, but I'm aware of this mans work Dr Thomas Gold, and find the evidence very strong to support abriogenic source of Hydron Carbons in any state. The links off this site are fascinating. people.cornell.edu >>My new book, "The Deep Hot Bioshpere," (Copernicus, An Imprint of Springer-Verlag, New York, ISBN 0-387-98546-8) is now available in bookstores in the USA and United Kingdom. It can also be obtained on the Internet from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com. It discusses most of the items listed below. The basic idea that a large amount of microbiol life exists in the pore spaces of the rocks down to depths of between 6 and 10 kilometers arose in the following way: natural petroleum almost always contains elevated levels of the chemically inert gas helium and at the same time it contains molecules that are unquestionably of biological origin. How these two different substances meet up in oil has long been a puzzle. If there exists microbial life, down to all levels that can be reached by the drill, then the biological molecules can be explained. The association with helium can then be explained adequetely if the hydrocarbons have come up from much deeper levels and thereby swept up the diffusely distributed helium that exists in the rocks. The evidence that such a deep bioshpere exists has now been strongly supported by microbiol studies in deep bore holes. Drilling deep into the crystalline granite of Sweden between 1986 and 1993 revealed substantial amounts of natural gas and oil. 80 barrels of oil were pumped up from a depth between 5.2 km and 6.7 km. Russian petroleum geologists followed this operation closely. Dr. P.N. Kropotkin reported at a meeting in Moscow that the discovery of oil deep in the Baltic Shield may be considered a decisive factor in the hundred year old debate about the biogenic or abiogenic origin of oil. This discovery was made in deep wells that were drilled in the central part of the crystalline Baltic Shield, on the initiative of T. Gold. Drilling into crystalline bedrock is now underway in Russia on a large scale. More than 300 wells have been drilled to a depth of more than 5 km and are productive, as also is the giant White Tiger field offshore Vietnam, mostly producing also from basement rock. <<