I follow the energy field for mostly financial reasons and its a strange but true story that the first time oil was ever radio dated was by a Canadian team just a few years ago and they were surprised to discover the Alberta oil sands are more like a hundred million years old rather than the previous estimate of fifty mil or so.
People have known about radio dating using different isotopes and it always shocked me that the first time someone radiodated crude oil was in the mid 00s just 15 or so years ago. I don't remember the technology the Canadians used it wasn't C14 as that tops out around 100K or so years.
The more you learn the more you find stuff everyone thinks they know, but they don't actually know it, or we just figured it out shockingly recently. Like we've been pumping oil how long, and doing radiodating how long, but nobody never put two and two together until just 15 years ago? That's just wild. You'd assume every field has a birthdate but reality is nobody knows for sure. Except that one field in Alberta as of 15 years ago. Maybe more data available now, donno.
Its just funny that journalist types will cite each other as if they're primary sources for decades until a number like "a quarter billion yrs" is culturally engrained into our civilization, then someone does some actual real world test tube work ONE time in ONE place and get different results.
For a multi trillion dollar business, its not as completely scientifically researched as people would assume. If it doesn't result in more flow at the pump, it doesn't get researched, mostly.
People have known about radio dating using different isotopes and it always shocked me that the first time someone radiodated crude oil was in the mid 00s just 15 or so years ago. I don't remember the technology the Canadians used it wasn't C14 as that tops out around 100K or so years.
The more you learn the more you find stuff everyone thinks they know, but they don't actually know it, or we just figured it out shockingly recently. Like we've been pumping oil how long, and doing radiodating how long, but nobody never put two and two together until just 15 years ago? That's just wild. You'd assume every field has a birthdate but reality is nobody knows for sure. Except that one field in Alberta as of 15 years ago. Maybe more data available now, donno.
Its just funny that journalist types will cite each other as if they're primary sources for decades until a number like "a quarter billion yrs" is culturally engrained into our civilization, then someone does some actual real world test tube work ONE time in ONE place and get different results.
For a multi trillion dollar business, its not as completely scientifically researched as people would assume. If it doesn't result in more flow at the pump, it doesn't get researched, mostly.