Texas Petroleum. Page: 28
102 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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TEXAS PETROLEUM.
burned for more than a year, smouldering for the most part, but bursting
into flame at intervals. There are no known deposits of sulphur in the
immediate vicinity, but in El Paso county and in a formation closely
similar there are extensive deposits. This locality is about 100 miles
northwest from Fort Stockton, but geologically there is very little dif-
ference.
It is possible that the origin of the sulphur deposits in this part of the
State is to be sought in the action of volcanic gases on limestone, whereby
there would result sulphur, gypsum and various hydrocarbons. Igneous
rocks are found in that part of the State, e. g., in the Davis mountains,
and we may have here an instance of the action of inorganic forces in
the production of sulphur and oil.
The formation of oil and of sulphur and its compounds may have gone
on together and it is possible also that inorganic and organic agencies
were concerned in the creation of the same deposit. There are parts of
the State, e. g., the coastal plain, where the evidences of the organic
origin of petroleum and sulphur are more apparent, but there are other
parts where the inorganic forces may well have played a part, e. g., beyond
the Pecos river, where intrusions of igneous rocks have come up through
limestone. It is possible also that forces now in operation are storing
up the material from which the future supplies of oil are to be obtained,
just as the madrepores, millepores, etc., are constructing what may here-
after be the frame-work of continents. The activities in these obscure
forms of life are difficult to distinguish and classify, and what we now
observe may be the end reactions of a long series of operations visible
only in their final results. The fixation of nitrogen by certain bacilli;
the absorption or secretion of oil and sulphur compounds by diatoms, the
building up of great structures by the coral-forming animals, are pro-
cesses made manifest to us chiefly through the results. One may object
that it would. take an enormous stretch of time to allow of such results,
but time is of no consequence in such calculations. It requires the timber
growing on an acre of fairly well wooded land to make an inch of coal,
and we may allow many generations of diatoms for a single pint of oil.
These suggestions are made in the hope that further research will be
stimulated and additional data collected for the elucidation of the prob-
lems involved.28
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Phillips, William Battle. Texas Petroleum., book, July 1900; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth130185/m1/52/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .