How Fossil Fuels Are Formed?

Fossils are the ultimate formation of those creatures which lived long ago on the earth. They are buried beneath the earth layers for million years. The creatures transform into fossils and can be used as fuels. Fuel is a source of non-renewable natural energy. People use fossil fuels in driving cars, producing electricity, cooking etc. So, fossil fuels are the inalienable energy sources in human life. Fossil fuels store energy and emit them when they are burnt. They get energy from sunlight. Plants produce their own food from sunlight. The energy passes to the animals. These energies remain in the animals and plants. After they die, they transform into fossil fuels.

Formation of fossil fuels

Fossil fuels are formed under the layers of rocks. Most of the rocks are sedimentary rocks. They create layers year after year. The layers keep building up and their pressure beneath layers increases. The temperature also increases relatively. When plants or animals remain under these layers for million years they transform into coals, oil and natural gas. As sedimentary layers build they put pressure on the older layers. The more layers are build the more pressure increases there. And energy in the fossil fuels also increases relatively. Sediment layers are usually formed under sea, lakes or valley. So, as water flows over the sedimentary layers, the dissolved minerals in the water sticks to the layers and form a kind of cement. This type of cement helps to transform the sedimentary layers into rocks.

How do coals form?

Coals usually form from dead plants which are buried beneath the sedimentary rocks. Plants under sea or swamps transform into peat and after the peat is buried under more layers it becomes coal. Coals are also sedimentary rocks. They receive energy from pressure and emit them when burnt.

How do oil form?

Oils are generally a transformation of microscopic animals that lived in ancient times. They were buried under sedimentary rocks million years ago. Getting pressured by layers they transform into oils. Getting more pressure they become natural gas. Oils are reserved in the tiny pores of the rocks. As the pressure builds the layers squeezes the oils drops into pores. But this is not at all easy to drill out oil from underground. Engineers research for right places to drill out oil. They set up machines but they can only put out a quarter of oils from the remaining of the reservoir.

How does natural gas form?

We have already learnt about how oils are formed. The formation process of natural gas is same but it requires a lot more pressure. When oils underground get more pressure from sedimentary rocks they transform into natural gas.

Uses of Fossil Fuels in everyday life

We get petroleum and refine it because before it is refined petroleum is something like crude oil. After refining it we get various type of oil. One such type is gasoline. When gasoline is burnt it releases a lot of energy and the energy can be used to propel vehicles. Diesel is another fossil fuel that is used to run vehicles. We burn coals, oil and natural gas to get electricity. Also various products of our everyday life come from fossil fuels such as ball-point pen, printer cartridges, lipstick, polyester clothing etc. People use natural gas and oil to cook, heat up the house. So, fossil fuels have impact on our everyday life. The uses of fossil fuels are so wide that there is a concern of running out of them.

Can we run out of fossil fuels?

If we keep using fossil fuels like today we might lose all the remaining fossil fuels. Because fossil fuels takes million years to form. Moreover they are non renewable energy sources. We should reduce the wide use of fossil fuels in order to use them longer time.

Impact on environment

Burning of fossil fuel has impact on the environment. It releases green house gas that is the cause of global warming. Removing fossil fuels from the environment pollutes the environment.