Fishes the Source of Petroleum |
Common terms and phrases
abundant fish albertite areas argillaceous asphalt average became Benton bituminous rocks bituminous shale bones Bull calcareous cannel coal cannelite carbonaceous Carboniferous clay conodonts constituents contain Crossopterygii deposits described destruction Devonian eastern elasmobranchs Eocene Europe evidently feet thick fish beds fish fauna fish oil fish remains fish scales fish-life Fixed carbon formation formed fossil fossil fishes freshwater ganoid genera geologic geologists gray Green River hydrocarbon indicate Jurassic kerogenite lakes land later lignite limestone Lower marine marls masses Meletta miles Miocene Mowry shales North America occur oil shales oil supplies oil-shales oily Old Red Oligo-Miocene Oligocene organisms origin period Permian petroleum petroliferous plant remains primitive probably region rich rocks samples sand sandstone sharks Silurian South species strata Surv teeth tion traced Triassic types U. S. Geol Upper Cretaceous varied volatile volcanic Western wholly writer yield zone
Popular passages
Page 309 - The sandstone layers range in thickness from a fraction of an inch to several feet and in grain from fine to pebbly.
Page 64 - A. line of oil and gas springs marks the outcrop of the Huron shale from New York to Tennessee. The rock itself is frequently found saturated with petroleum, and the overlying strata, if porous, are sure to be more or less impregnated with it. "Third. The wells on Oil Creek penetrate the strata immediately overlying the Huron shale, and the oil is obtained from the fissured and porous sheets of sandstone of the Portage and Chemung groups, which lie just above the Huron, and offer convenient reservoirs...
Page 2 - ... the lip of a cup. It has then a very foul appearance, like very dirty tar or molasses; but it is purified by heating and straining it while hot through flannel or other woolen stuff. It is used by the people of the vicinity for sprains and rheumatism and for sores on their horses, it being in both cases rubbed upon the part.
Page 18 - But another fact, and one of very great importance in this connection, is the affinity of clay for oil of all sorts. Illustrations of this affinity are familiar to every one, but an observation of Professor Joseph Leidy's, made a number of years since, has special interest and value for us. He observed that on the bed of the Schuylkill river, for some distance...
Page 18 - If petroleum, arising from such springs as occur in Central and South America, had found its way by rivers to lakes or seas, or had been liberated from sources beneath the sea, the same results would have followed. It would have been absorbed by the fine particles of clay held in suspension in river and sea, and the combined clay and oil would have been gradually carried downward to rest on the sea floor, an oilbearing shale.
Page 135 - The interlamination of shales, more frequent and thicker nearer tho sides of the lake, would naturally result from the mud, also brought down by the streams, settling to the bottom more quickly than the leaves of the plants, but at the same time carrying down with it a large percentage of carbonaceous substances. In some parts the lake appears to have become filled up or elevated above the water-level ; and seat-earth filled with Stigmarian rootlets was the result. From the seat-earth grew plants...
Page 1 - Barbadoes tar ; and from which one man may gather several gallons in a day. The troops sent to guard the Western posts halted at this spring, collected some of the oil, and bathed their joints with it. This gave them great relief from the rheumatic complaints with which they were affected. The waters, of which the troops drank freely, operated as a gentle purge.
Page 275 - ... nodules. The layers vary from the thickness of a knife-blade to twelve inches, split easily and regularly. There are also local beds, four to ten feet thick, of porous limestone, which have the appearance of having been deposited from springs during the tertiary period. There are also seams of very fine limestone that are quite black, so thoroughly is the rock saturated
Page 286 - Amazon, a range of 18 degrees of latitude. The granite and other ancient rocks against which the system abuts landwards reach the coast in occasional spurs, between which the Tertiary deposits occupy bays of 20 to 50 miles in depth. Oil-shales suitable for distillation, and locally termed turfa, probably occur more or less throughout this vast area, but have been specially noticed at the following points.
Page 64 - We have in the Huron shale a vast repository of solid hydro-carbonaceous matter, which may be made to yield ten to twenty gallons of oil to the ton by artificial distillation. Like all other organic matter, this is constantly undergoing spontaneous distillation, except where hermetically sealed deep under rock and water. This results in the formation of oil and gas, closely resembling those which we make...