I posted this on another forum but thought it might be of some interest to those here.

Oil is made from the remains of marine organisms, mostly microscopic organisms. However, there are small inputs from terrestrial plants and animals. As the animals and plants are buried in organic-rich rocks, the organic chemicals are cooked into oil over time.

What does this have to do with the global flood? Well, according to the YEC model, all living beings were on the earth at the start of the flood and their remains are what makes oil. As such, if the global flood is true, we should expect that all the chemicals found in oil would be in all the oils sourced by the remains of the pre-flood organisms. There should be no sorting of the chemical precursors of oil.

But, if evolution took place, and different life forms were on earth at different times, we should expect to find certain chemicals in oils sourced by older source rocks and different chemicals in oils sourced by younger source rocks (or additional chemicals). Afterall, a plant or animal would have to evolve and live on earth before it could leave its characteristic chemicals in the oils generated millions of years after its death.

Well what do we find? We find that oil source rocks have different chemicals throughout the geologic column. And we find that we often can determine what plant or animal group left the chemicals in the oil. Let's start with the precambrian oils. Such oils are found in Oman which is sourced from the precambrian. But such oils lack all the chemicals found in oils from later rocks. More on that later. But, the precambrian oils had a unique chemical ratio from those higher up.


Mark A. Mcaffrey et al, "Paleoenvironmental Implications of novel C30
steranes in Precambrian to Cenozoic age Petroleum and Bitumen,"
Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta 58(1994):529-532, p. 529

"Petroleums
and bitumens from Early Proterozoic (~1850 Ma) to Miocene (~15 Ma) age marine strata contain 24-isopropylcholestanes, a novel group of C30 steroids. The abundance of these compounds, relative to 24-n-propylcholestanes, varies with source rock age. Late Proterozoic (Vendian) and Early Cambrian oils and/or bitumens from Siberia, the Urals, Oman, Australia, and India have a high ratio of 24-isopropylcholestanes to 24-n-propylcholestanes (>1), while younger and older samples have a lower ratio (<+0.4). Temporal changes in this parameter may reflect the relative abundance of certain Porifera (sponges) and certain marine algae through time. Geochemical indicators such as this, which can constrain the source rock age of a migrated oil, are useful in source rock identification during petroleum exploration."

© source where applicable




Why would the flood know how to sort these chemicals? Oils from source rocks older than 350 million years (Mississippian-Devonian Boundary) are high in hydrocarbons which have 29 carbon atoms, called C29-monoaromatic steroids.

Oils which are from source rocks earlier than the Jurassic lack 24-norcholoestanes.

A. G. Holba et al, "24-norcholestanes as Age-sensitive Molecular
Fossils," Geology 26(1998):783-786, p. 783

“The biological precursors of 24-norcholoestanes remain unclear, but samples from more than 100 basins provide evidence that 24-norcholestanes show an initial increase above background in Jurassic oils, but they increase dramatically in Cretaceous oils, coincident with diatom evolution. The highest ratios are found in oils and rock extracts from Oligocene or younger marine siliceous source rocks in which the sources were deposited at paleolatitudes greater than 30o N"

© source where applicable



Why were diatoms not in the preflood oceans? To follow the YEC logic, God must have created the diatoms in the middle of the flood--poof!

But the fact is that the YECs must explain why the oceans kept all 24-norcholoestane from being deposited until the flood waters were depositing the Jurassic rocks just when they decided to start depositing diatoms.

Plants also are of interest. First vitrain, a chemical common in coal is lacking in oils prior to the Devonian, but present in many oils after that time. http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/...sti_id=6294001


Retene, Cadalene and tetracyclic diterpanes appear in oils after the conifers appear on earth. They evolved in the Mississippian but became numerous in the Triassic. These chemicals are lacking in oils sourced from rocks before the Mississippian.

Oleanane is a chemical which is made only by angiosperms. I was once in a geochemistry seminar when the teacher, a good friend, claimed that he
could tell the difference between a Tertiary oil and all other oils. It was based on Oleanane, a chemical which angiosperms and only angiosperms create. I objected that angiosperms arose in the early Cretaceous. He replied that I was correct but that they were so rare until the very last stage of the Cretaceous that they left no record of oleanane in the rocks until the Maastrichtian (the last epoch of the Cretaceous). Thus he admitted that a few oils containing oleanane would not be Tertiary but 90% would be. His reasoning is based upon this:

J. Michael Moldowan et al, "the Molecular Fossil Record of Oleanane
and Its Relation to Angiosperms," Science 265(1994):768-771, p. 769


"The results of the oleanane analyses are broadly comparable with those found for fossil angiosperm occurrences. The relative concentrations of oleanane to hopane, excluding the unusual Middle Jurassic and Neocomian occurrences, begin low, near the detectable limit of 3% during the Early Cretaceous and steadily increase to a plateau during the latest Cretaceous. Then, during the Tertiary there is a major increase."

© source where applicable



YEC leaders need to explain why the global flood sorted these chemicals which are from plants and animals which should have existed on the preflood earth. Of course, they won't because they can't. And these YEC leaders hope you don't find out about such things.


For TW I will add something new. There is no grass and no grass pollen prior to the Tertiary. Why did God create grass in the middle of the global flood?