According to the article "Scientists find more oil fissures in Lake Baikal's bedrock"
...several Russian scientists going back as far as Dmitry Mendeleyev have suggested an 'abiogenic hypothesis,' according to which petroleum was formed from carbon deposits originating deep in the Earth's mantle...
Scientists find more oil fissures in Lake Baikal's bedrock
Lake Baikal: 6.3 magnitude earthquake
Note: If that is the case, then it would mean that life could have originated from hydrocarbons, something that seems very likely to me!
After reviewing the matter with the assistance of the abiotic folks over at Oil_is_Mastery (Anaconda and Oil_Is_Mastery), I've concluded that oil on Earth is actually abiotic in origin, just as it is on other moons around our solar system, meaning that sedimentary rock is not an essential part of the process. See the following two articles for a thermodynamic analysis showing that the Earth's upper mantle contains just the right conditions for producing abiotic oil:
The Constraints and the Laws of Thermodynamics upon the Evolution of Hydrocarbons: The Prohibition of Hydrocarbon Genesis at Low Pressures
The Evolution of Multicomponent Systems at High Pressures
One thing that I'd like to suggest is that life can arise from hydrocarbons, Stanley Miller experiment aside. Biological molecules (especially fatty acids) often do strikingly resemble hydrocarbons, so much so that perhaps life arose in the tar pits instead of the other way around? The existance of the first RNA and the arisal of life have been a major mystery for scientists. I know it's just mere speculation on my part at this point, but abiotic oil may be the starting point for life to occur.
Anyhow, if there is such an origin of life arising from abiotic oil, like I suspect, then this should be huge news.
Life from hydrocarbons
A fascinating suggestion! Thank you for the links as well, which provided useful information to help back up your idea.
Abiotic Oil
Looks like a very interesting subject to explore, especially the idea that life may have gotten started via hydrocarbons. It would make sense that a geologic process rather than the decay of plant matter would be responsible for the oil we find today; there is a huge amount of it in the Middle East alone. How much vegetable material would have to go in to producing a reserve of that size? You had mentioned that other moons in the solar system contain abiotic oil. To me, that would be a slam-dunk for the theory. Do you have any specific references to that? I would like to read more about that particular aspect.
Great post! Thank you.
Rich
Abiotic Oil Research
This Enlightened Idiotic Supergenius:
http://oilismastery.blogspot.com/search?q=abiotic+oil
How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go into the future, or is it the past?