Abstract
A VALUABLE collection of essays on the vexed question of petroleum origin has recently been made available through the good offices of Prof. Otto Stutzer. The collection includes articles by well-known chemists, geologists and hydrologists. Dr. Erich Wasmund gives his opinion as to the origin of adipocere (‘corpse wax’) and also advances the theory that anaerobic anabitumen bacteria can also originate in bitumen. Dr. Karl Krejci-Graf discusses the varied theories of origin of bituminous sediment, and projects interesting and novel conclusions for the attention of the reader. Dr. Hecht traces the chemical history of organic substance in the sea from the moment of death until final fossilisation and entombment. Dr. Treibs first reviews the works of J. E. Hackford and E. Berl on the transformation of plant substance, especially carbohydrates into oil, and then in his contentions that porphyrines are contained in petroleum derived from chlorophyll and haemin, and that a higher formation temperature than 200°C. is out of the question for petroleum, shows that he differs from both. Prof. R. Potonie reports the results of geochemical investigations of sapropel from the Unterriicker Lake near Prenzlau and the Sakrower Lake near Potsdam. Prof. Steinbrecher emphasises the chemists' proved point of view that petroleum normally found in oilfields is not high temperature petroleum, since it contains constituents which would decompose at high temperatures. Finally, Dr. Dora Wolansky summarises such views as have appeared in Russian literature on petroleum origin, thereby giving a synopsis of valuable ideas which in their original form are incomprehensible or inaccessible to the majority of people.
Erdöl-Muttersubstanz:
Beiträge zu dieser Frage. Von Dr. F. E. Hecht, Prof. Dr. K. Krejci-Graf, Prof. Dr. R. Potonié, Prof. Dr. H. Steinbrecher, Dr. A. Treibs, Dr. E. Wasmund, Dr. Dora Wolansky. (Schriften aus dem Gebiet der Brennstoff-Geologie, herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Otto Stutzer, Heft 10.) Pp. vi + 181. (Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke, 1935.) 17 gold marks.
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Erdöl-Muttersubstanz. Nature 136, 891 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136891c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136891c0