# Where did the oil come from?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-oil-come-from/58345>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 17, 2001, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-oil-come-from/58345 "2001-03-17T04:49:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2001, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-oil-come-from/58345/1 "2001-03-17T04:49:20Z")

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Scampering Gremlin’s thread “The dawn of agriculture”  
caused me to wonder about the climate of Alaska when the oil was deposited there.  
So, where did it come from, the regular way? and how did the climate change so drasticly? I mean it is mighty close to the polar regions.

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2001, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-oil-come-from/58345/2 "2001-03-17T04:56:15Z")

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Um, just off the top of my head–you’ve heard of “continental drift”? “Plate tectonics”? Here’s a hint–Alaska didn’t always used to be up there. When the oil was forming, Alaska was somewhere else.

🙂

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**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2001, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-oil-come-from/58345/3 "2001-03-17T05:17:46Z")

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So OK how old is the oil?  
Can it be carbon dated like bones or something.  
When did this drift that made alaska the cold place it is happen,and where was it when the vegetation that made the oil was alive?

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**Author:** ![Ned](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/848f3c/32.png) [@Ned](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ned)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2001, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-oil-come-from/58345/4 "2001-03-17T05:44:55Z")

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Even if the oil itself can’t be tested the adjacent strata can. I think they have a pretty good idea just from the nature of the oil. I believe coal takes about 300 million, with oil up to 6.

In addition to the continental drift I think we have a shifting axis over that period of time.