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The "deep biotic petroleum hypothesis", similar to the abiogenic petroleum origin hypothesis, holds that not all petroleum deposits within the Earth's rocks can be explained purely according to the orthodox view of petroleum geology. Thomas Gold used the term "the deep hot biosphere" to describe the microbes which live underground. [6]
He is the founding father of modern abiogenic theory for origin of petroleum, which states that some petroleum is formed from non-biological sources of hydrocarbons located deep in the Earth's crust and mantle. He graduated from Leningrad Mining Institute in 1922, obtained a Dr.Sc. in Geology and Mineralogy in 1936, and become professor in 1941.
Porfiriev was one of the major proponents of the theory of the origin of Abiogenic petroleum, that is, that petroleum was formed by primordial non-biological processes rather than from the decaying remains of plant and animal life.
Upon examination of the source rock and oil content, petrogeologists have emphasized that the oil's components indicate a lacustrine organic facies with lipid-rich, land-plant debris and fresh-water algal material, refuting theories of abiogenic origin in this area. [4]
It was at this lake that Gold proposed as the most likely place to test the hypothesis on the origin of petroleum because it was one of the few places in the world where the granite basement rock was cracked sufficiently to allow oil to seep up from great depth. Gold began testing his abiogenic petroleum theory in 1986.
An alternative mechanism to the one described above was proposed by Russian scientists in the mid-1850s, the hypothesis of abiogenic petroleum origin (petroleum formed by inorganic means), but this is contradicted by geological and geochemical evidence. [75] Abiogenic sources of oil have been found, but never in commercially profitable amounts.
In: Problem of oil gas origin and formation of their commercial accumulations. - Kiev, Naukova Dumka Publ. - p. 49-62 (in Russian) Chekaliuk E.B., 1967. Petroleum in the Earth's upper mantle. – Kiev, Naukova Dumka Publ. - 256 p. (in Russian) Chekaliuk, E.B., 1971. The thermodynamic basis for the theory of the abiotic genesis of petroleum.
Scientific opinion on the origin of oil and gas is that all natural oil and gas deposits on Earth are fossil fuels, and are therefore not abiogenic in origin. There are a few abiogenic petroleum theories which are still subject to ongoing research and which typically seek to explain the existence of smaller quantities of oil and gas.