Thomas Gold

[David Wynne-Griffiths]

According to an article in today's Times, Gold who is now 78, is
still producing provocative ideas that stir up the scientific
community. He has to be taken seriously as he has been far more often
right than wrong in the past. His latest ideas concern what happens
beneath the surface of the Earth.

Gold believes that oil is not formed from biological material, but
results from the gradual release of hydocarbons trapped in the
interior of the Earth. One factor in support is the frequency of
helium being found in oil deposits. Helium results from the
radioactive decay of rocks and is curiously never found on its own.

If Gold is right it is likely that oil will be found almost anywhere
if you drill deep enough. Two wells were drilled in an area of Sweden
where geologists would least expect to find oil. A small quantity of
oil was found at a depth of 6.7 km. Another hole 11km away produced
the same result. In Australia scientists reported last month that
oil had been found in rocks from three billion years ago when it is
believed there was not a lot of biological material in existence.

The second idea relates to the first. The extremophiles, the bacteria
which have been found in deep rock interstices, were generally
believed to be organisms coming from the surface. Gold says this is
wrong and that they are organisms that have always lived below the
surface feeding on the hydrocarbons, and were the source of life on
the surface. He says we suffer from 'surface chauvinism' in assuming
that everything started on the surface. Gold has just published a
new book called 'The Deep Hot Biosphere'
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David W-G
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