Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 288, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1910 — The Mystery of Petroleum. [ARTICLE]

The Mystery of Petroleum.

At a recent meeting of a scientific society at Washington one of the members, in discussing the present problems in earth-physics, invited attention to a mystery which will assume greater importance as the accessible supply of coal 'diminishes —the origin of petroleum. Such vast accumulations of oil as exist in the Caspian and Caucasus regions seem incompatible with the hypothesis that petroleum originates from animal and vegetable remains, Mendeleeff suggested that the source of the oil is the decomposition of iron earbids in the terrestrial crust, but his hypothesis has, not been generally accepted. If the origin is not animal or vegetable, then, it is thought, the supply is very likely inexhaustible.