crude oil and other fossil fuels

Fossil fuels

Cruise oil, coal and gas are fossil fuels. They are formed over millions of years, from the remains of dead organisms,

• crude oil and gas wee foremen form Dead Sea creatures ( mainly plankton)

• Coal was formed from dead plants

Crude oil is a fossil fuel. It is a finite ( non-renewable) resource found in rocks buried deep underground.

How as crude oil formed

Crude oil was formed from the remains of an ancient biomass, consisting mainly of plankton, that was buried under mud. Crude oil is found trapped in some of the sedimentary rocks of the earths crust. Essentially:

1. When animals and plants such as plankton die their remains sink to the ocean floor

2. Over time this gets covered with sand and silt which adds a lot of pressure

3. Over millions of years this pressure turns the remains into crude oil

This is also how natural gas deposits are formed

What is crude oil made from?

Crude oil is a mixture of a very large number of different compounds. Most of these compounds are hydrocarbons. A hydrocarbon is hydrogen and carbon covalently bonded.

Atoms of hydrocarbon: have strong bonds

Intermolecular forces between molecules of hydrocarbons: weak