Rock Disturbances Theory Of Petroleum Emanations Vs. The Anticlinal Or Structural Theory Of Petroleum Accumulations

ALTHOUGH some of the observers who first paid especial attention to the occurrences of oil and gas in the strata (such as Hunt in 1859, Andrews in 1861, Winchell in 1865, Mendelejeff in 1876, Höfer in 1876, Minshall in 1881, and I. C. White in 1883) seem to have been impressed with the fact that oil and gas deposits were connected with the disturbances in the rocks caused by their upheaval,1 yet, with the exception of Mendelejeff, and possibly Andrews, these observers do not appear to have understood what is really the one essential factor in the occurrence of oil and gas in the strata: viz., the faulting, uplifting, fracturing, fissuring, and jointing always accompanying even slight rock disturbances, and in certain districts (petroliferous provinces)2 allowing solfataric hydrocarbon emanations to force their way up from the interior and to reach and impregnate the porous portions of sediments subjected to the disturbances. Instead of this simple explanation to account for the observed connection between petroleum deposits and rock disturbances, most of the observers mentioned above, and many others who have followed them on the name lines since, have entirely reversed the problem. To them, instead of the dissemination of gases from fissures into the sediments, it presented the accumulation and concentration, according to anticlinal or other geologic structures, of oil and gas originally present throughout the whole mass of the strata where they were produced by the decomposition or distillation of organic remains. Whether this important problem involves accumulation from sources within the oil-bearing strata themselves, or infiltration and dissemination from outside sources, may be easily determined if all preconceived ideas are put aside and the established facts only are considered.