Printer friendly version Scientists devise new model on
continental thinning which helps locate oil and gas resources 03
November 2010 Royal Holloway, University of London In today’s (3
November) edition of Nature, scientists from Royal Holloway,
University of London and the Institut de Ciencies del Mar
(Spanish Research Council) have revealed a new model that
explains how continents thin as well as helping to more
accurately predict the location of hydrocarbons such as oil and
gas. For oil to be formed, sediments need to be deposited under
the right temperatures. “When continents extend, the top of the
crust subsides and deepens, creating a space for sediments which
may convert into oil,” explains Dr Marta Pérez-Gussinyé from
Royal Holloway. “Our model presents a conceptual framework to
predict more accurately the temperature conditions through which
sediments go, therefore helping in the search for oil and gas.”
Geologists have long debated the paradoxes arising from their
understandings of how continents b