Petroleum+--+Intro

=== Petroleum is a liquid from underground buried by sedimentary rock. Petroleum is a fossil fuel that is usually called crude oil or oil. The word petroleum came from the Greek word petra meaning rock and the Latin word oleum meaning oil. It is dark colored and feels gooey. Petroleum was formed when tiny ocean organisms died and sank 50-100 millions of years ago. Petroleum is also a form of solar energy that contains chemical energy in the links of its atoms because the tiny organisms that died to make petroleum ate plankton that fed on sunlight. When the organisms sank to the bottom of the ocean, it was buried under layers of thousands of sand and sediment (Which became sedimentary rock) that has built up millions of years ago. Under the thousands of feet of sand and sediment, petroleum was built by pressure and heat (from being close to the core of the earth) which was about 176 degrees - 212 degrees farenheight. Then it was locked in porous rocks such as reservoir rocks. Petroleum has been supplying the earth with energy for many years.===

Want to learn more about the formation of oil? Click here Click here to go to history of petroleum page .media type="custom" key="17200270"