Geoscenarios
Oil
Key aspects of our way of life currently depend on cheap oil. Yet oil is the product of millions of years of geologic processes. As the rate of oil consumption increases and supply slowly diminishes, companies resort to costlier and ecologically riskier methods of extraction. Accidents can have huge ecological and economic consequences as seen in the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. What is petroleum and how did it get underneath the Gulf of Mexico? How do we locate the oil we use and how long before we run out?
