Editing Fossil fuel (section)

==Origin==
[[File:Countries by Oil Production in 2013.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Since [[crude oil|oil fields]] are located only at certain places on Earth,<ref>[http://quakeinfo.ucsd.edu/~gabi/sio15/energy/supps/globalmap-oil.jpg Oil fields map] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120806212614/http://quakeinfo.ucsd.edu/~gabi/sio15/energy/supps/globalmap-oil.jpg |date=6 August 2012 }}. quakeinfo.ucsd.edu</ref> only some countries are oil-independent; the other countries depend on the oil-production capacities of these countries.]]

The theory that fossil fuels formed from the [[fossil|fossilized remains]] of dead plants by exposure to heat and pressure in [[Earth's crust]] over millions of years was first introduced by [[Andreas Libavius]] "in his 1597 Alchemia [Alchymia]" and later by [[Mikhail Lomonosov]] "as early as 1757 and certainly by 1763".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgxEDwAAQBAJ|title=Springer Handbook of Petroleum Technology|last1=Hsu|first1=Chang Samuel|last2=Robinson|first2=Paul R.|publisher=Springer|year=2017|isbn=978-3-319-49347-3|edition=2nd, illustrated|page=360}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=mgxEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA360 Extract of p. 360]</ref> The first recorded use of the term "fossil fuel" occurs in the work of the German chemist [[Caspar Neumann]], in English translation in 1759.<ref name="NeumannLewis1773">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OBUAAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA492|title=The Chemical Works of Caspar Neumann ... (1773 printing)|author1=Caspar Neumann|author2=William Lewis|publisher=J. and F. Rivington|year=1759|pages=492–}}</ref> The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' notes that, in the phrase "fossil fuel," the adjective "fossil" means "[o]btained by digging; found buried in the earth", which dates to at least 1652,<ref>
{{Cite OED|fossil}} – "fossil [...] adj. [...] Obtained by digging; found buried in the earth. Now chiefly of fuels and other materials occurring naturally in underground deposits; esp. in FOSSIL FUEL n."
</ref> before the English noun "fossil" came to refer primarily to long-dead organisms in the early 18th century.<ref>
{{Cite OED|fossil}} – "fossil [...] n. [...] Something preserved in the ground, esp. in petrified form in rock, and recognizable as the remains of a living organism of a former geological period, or as preserving an impression or trace of such an organism."
</ref>

Aquatic [[phytoplankton]] and [[zooplankton]] that died and sedimented in large quantities under [[anoxic sea water|anoxic conditions]] millions of years ago began forming petroleum and natural gas as a result of [[anaerobic decomposition]]. Over [[geologic time scale|geological time]] this [[organic compound|organic]] [[matter]], mixed with [[mud]], became buried under further heavy layers of inorganic sediment. The resulting high temperature and [[pressure]] caused the organic matter to chemically [[diagenesis|alter]], first into a waxy material known as [[kerogen]], which is found in [[oil shale]]s, and then with more heat into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons in a process known as [[catagenesis (geology)|catagenesis]]. Despite these heat-driven transformations, the energy released in combustion is still photosynthetic in origin.<ref name="thermochemistry of formation">{{cite web|title= thermochemistry of fossil fuel formation|url= http://www.geochemsoc.org/files/6214/1261/1770/SP-2_271-284_Sato.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920172448/http://www.geochemsoc.org/files/6214/1261/1770/SP-2_271-284_Sato.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-20 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Terrestrial plant]]s tended to form coal and methane. Many of the coal fields date to the [[Carboniferous]] period of [[History of Earth|Earth's history]]. Terrestrial plants also form [[Kerogen#Type III: humic|type III kerogen]], a source of natural gas. Although fossil fuels are continually formed by natural processes, they are classified as [[non-renewable resources]] because they take millions of years to form and known viable reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are generated.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AJ4SnHbb-ZcC&q=fossil+fuels+depleted+much+faster+than+renewal&pg=PA11|title=Environmental Science: Problems, Connections and Solutions|last2=Spoolman|first2=Scott|publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2007|isbn=978-0-495-38337-6|access-date=14 April 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ahuja|first=Satinder|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DHKDBAAAQBAJ&q=fossil+fuels+depleted+much+faster+than+renewal&pg=PA278|title=Food, Energy, and Water: The Chemistry Connection|publisher=Elsevier|year=2015|isbn=978-0-12-800374-9|access-date=14 April 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref>