What is the natural role of oil in the planet?

Question

I have been told that it is a lube for the plates in the earth. So if that is true does that mean we are going to have a big earthquake? Because the world is running out of oil.

Answer 1

Not true. Most of the largest deposits of crude oil are not near the boundaries of the tectonic plates.

Oil deposits seem to be a method of removing carbon from the biosphere. The other method is the formation of carbonate minerals (much of which originally came from the shells of aquatic life, including diatoms).

As a bit of added trivia: In terms of the overall Carbon Cycle, the release of carbon dioxide during the manufacture of cement seems to be larger than the about of carbon dioxide released by the burning of petroleum fuels on a world wide basis.

Answer 2

A 'role' is a part played by something regarding something other than itself. The wind plays a role in eroding the mountains for example.

Oil plays no major role in the Earth's geology other than to act as a stratum, a layer beneath those above. It is not a major part. It is only human endeavour that has place oil on a pedestal.

In the natural environment, it is a final result of the heat and pressure brought to bear on layers of plant growth buried by the passage of time. It is usually nothing more than a pollutant when it is release into the environment naturally, just as it is a pollutant when humans do it.

;-D human cleverness can turn the oil into many useful items.

Answer 3

Oil and other fossil fuels are the final product of -fossils. Ancient forests and organisms were preserved beneath the earth's surface and with intense heat and pressure, were transformed into oil. It has no function at all, it is just "there" it is the result of natural phenomena and stochastic events like the meteor that hit the Yuccatan penninsula in the Cretaceous, many of the organisms that make up oil are from that era.

Answer 4

Oil just exists. There is no purpose for its existence.
The plates cannot benefit from oil. When they contact and slide the temperatures are so high that oil would break down or oxidize.
D.

Answer 5

You were told wrong.
The Plates are floating on molten rock.

the oil is miles above that in pockets. (some quite large) Theory is that billions of years ago
huge forests were buried and bacteria turned them into oil over time. Some turned into coal.


If you beleive in God then maybe he put the stuff here so we can use it just like we are doing.
If you don't believe in God, then the oil and life itself has no purpose.

Answer 6

As far as I know, petroleum serves no natural role. It certainly does not lubricate Earth's tectonic plates.

Answer 7

Wallet liners