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Hi all,

Is there any evidence of oil spills in Earth's geologic past, similar to the gulf catastrophe in scope, but caused by geologic processes like plate tectonics? If so, what impact did this have??

Thanks,

Dianne

There is evidence of large disturbances in the global carbon levels, in the form of carbon isotope records. But those are explained by global changes in biological activity due to ice ages, ocean anoxic events, vulcanic eruptions, biological processes and changes in ocean currents due to plate rearrangements.

A big oil blowout such as happened in the gulf, even an enormous one, wouldn't leave much evidence in the rock record, if any. Nevertheless, we can assume that they did happen every once in a while, thanks to earthquakes opening up fractures or maybe even volcanic activity.

I thought something along these lines had to occured naturally from time to time... So maybe this oil spill, as bad as it is, isn't the end of the world.

Thanks!