What is the process for oil to be formed and why is there oil located in Oklahoma?

Answer 1

Originally, the earth had a supercontinent named Pangaea. Glaciers in the east and west extended from the north through Canada and through repetitive advancing and receding carved out basin areas, such as The Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, the basins for The Great Lakes, and The Grand Canyon in the west.

Pangaea eventually had a warm to hot climate and large dinosaurs roamed the land.

Pangaea formed two major mountain ranges: The Appalachian Mountains in the east and millions of years later, the Rocky Mountains in the West (both with numerous ranges). As these mountains formed, sediments showed that the land now in the Rockies was once at the Pacific coast. Sediments in the Appalachian Mountains also showed it had folded from the coast. Scientists believe that at one point, th entire middle section of the US was an inland sea with wetlands extending beyond. As the supercontinent broke up, forces folded lands into the mountains.

In boggy wetlands, old trees, leaves, and plants formed "litter" that fell on the watery ground. One layer became compressed on another layer, year after year. This litter eventually became peat. In decomposition, boggy peat stays very hot inside, just like in a compost heap in a backyard. Water, heat, and continual adding of more litter perpetuates a process of decomp that leads to the formation of a thick petroleum.

The theory as to why so much oil, gas, and coal exists both in the East (PA, OH, IN, ILL, WVA and KY) and in the West (like OK) is that the inland sea's vast body ended near these areas, with boggy wetlands extending further outward where peat formed under the warm water.

Most petroleum oil exists in underground chambers. But it could also seep upward and lay in puddles on the ground. Indigenous tribes that lived in North America knew about petroleum long before Whites ever came to explore the New World. Native Americans used oil from the puddles to treat skin abrasions, irritations, small sores, etc. Natives introduced these cures to White men. White men used up all the puddles as they found them, But a man named Drake finally invented a derrick to bring oil from underground to the surface. This first occurred in Oil City, PA, and by the 1880s, oil derricks dotted hillsides across western PA and in other states. As Manifest Destiny continued from the 1700s, men brought these inventions with them.

Note: OK, just like the coal-oil rich eastern states, has plentiful gas pockets also. And like in eastern states, fracking to release gas from rock in OK has led to increasing earthquakes. Ohio has banned most fracking for this reason.