At https://phys.org/news/2023-03-major-north-american-oil-source.html … which is a reference to the Bakken shale formation that lies beneath a stretch of North Americ, from North Dakota into Canada. It has been a source of oil for 70 years – and has plenty in reserve it would seem. Where did the oil come from? It is thought to derive from compressed plant material, squeezed and cooked at a very high temperature. On the other hand, some scientists have suggested oil may also have an abiotic origin, presumably involving bacteria that live in the interior of the earth. It seems, the rocks concerned, or the shale, have opened a new window for scientists – analysing paleontological and biogeochemical data extracted from the rock formation. What they found were signs of a biotic crisis at the Late Devonian Period, 350 million years ago. Signs of euximia, or an anoxic signal in ocean water. It coincided with a mass extinction event. However, the research appears to ignore most of this and scratches around to account for the anoxic water. In keeping with global warming hype they went on to latch onto the idea that it was caused by higher sea levels flooding the continents*. All very modern as far as interpretation is concerned – but why ignore the nature of the catastrophic event. For example, a tidal wave sweeeping across the contnental land mass of North America could equally explain the formation, and the creation of the oil. Higher sea levels, they continue, leads to more and more nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen. This rush of nutrients then caused an algal bloom, on the assumption the higher sea levels were a permanent fixture for a period of time. We therefore have a gradualist or uniformitarian assumption and this is why they are forced to look at it quite differently from a catastrophic extinction event. The algal bloom then led to toxic hydrogen sulfide right where most marine animals would have lived – in the shallow seas of the higher sea levels. In a tidal wave scenario those marine animals would have perished. What caused the sea levels to rise is not explained but is assumed to be part and parcel of global warming at this point in time – even though there was no ice caps to melt. The Arctic, for example, was warm. In reality, it is more likely that another space rock struck earth somewhere and the after effects involved the formation of the Bakken oil field. What catastrophists might take from this, reading between the lines, is that oil and gas was created by the heat and the heaving earth [as a result of seismic activity]. What plant life would have made up the oil – and what role did algae play?
* that might however be the Phys Org author of the piece rather than the research team itself, as tglobal warming is a prerequisite to pass peer review, or so it is claimed.