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ELI5: Help me understand how crude oil exists
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I began thinking of crude oil and I don't understand its existence. I have some questions:

How can we take core samples that reflect hundreds of millions of years of Earth in small layers, yet vast quantities of crude oil exist seemingly in one spot?

If crude oil is so deep and is biological matter, why are we able to also locate so many fossils near the surface? What happened in that era and location to give way to the conditions of having a boat load of dead animals under the surface? When animals die, they usually decompose into bone. What happened to the animals that became oil that they didn't decompose in the way we normally see?

I would assume that tectonic plates play a large role in creating oil reserves, why hasn't the oil been subducted into the magma below the crust?

I know that there are an insane number of animals that have ever lived on Earth, but there also seems to be an insane amount of oil. Does not compute. Even if all of them were turned into oil (help me understand that process, too!) there seems like too much damn oil to account for it.

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6 years ago