Thomas Gold
Thomas Gold (born 1920 May 22) is an American astrophysicist and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.
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Gold has carried out research on cosmology and on magnetic fields, and coined the term "magnetosphere" for the Earth's magnetic fields.
Soon after the discovery of pulsars in 1968, he correctly identified these objects as rapidly rotating neutron stars with strong magnetic fields.
For a number of years Gold promoted the idea that a thick layer of dust would cover many portions of the surface of the Moon. His opinion influenced the design of the American Surveyor lunar landing probes, but their precautions appeared excessive, as Gold had overestimated the extent to which cyclic thermal expansion and contraction would pulverise lunar surface rock.
Gold achieved fame for his 1992 paper "The deep hot biosphere" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which presented a controversial theory of the origin of oil and gas deposits. The theory suggests that crude oil deposits have their origins in natural gas flows which feed bacteria living at extreme depths under the surface of the Earth. Gold also published a book of the same title in 1999, which expanded on the arguments in his 1992 paper and included speculations on the origin of life.
According to Gold and others, these bacteria account for the presence of biological debris in fossil fuels, obviating the need to resort to a biogenic theory for the origin of the latter. Bacterial action may also explain oddities in the concentration of other mineral deposits.
Most western geologistss and petrologistss consider petroleum abiogenic theories implausible and believe that the biogenic theory of fossil fuel formation adequately explains all observed fossil fuel deposits. Most geologists do recognize that the geologic carbon cycle includes subducted carbon which returns to the surface, with studies showing the carbon does rise in various ways. Gold and geology experts point out that the biogenic theories do not explain phenomena such as helium in oil fields and oil fields associated with deep geologic features.
However, recent discoveries have shown that bacteria live at depths far greater than previously believed. Whilst this does not prove Gold's theory, it certainly lends support to its arguments.
A thermal depolymerization process which converts animal waste to carbon fuels does show some processes can be done without bacterial action, but does not explain details of natural oil deposits such as magnetite production.
Astrophysics
Origins of petroleum
References
External links