Where Does Our Gasoline Come From?

[Stephanus]

Dear PF Forum,
I'd like to ask a questin regarding our use of gasoline.
Gasoline that we consume everyday, when did they come from?
Is it from Carbon Period 350 mya? or Before
And does Nature still produce fossil fuel?
And if it doesn't when did Nature stop producing fossil fuel? Cretaceous period?
It's just my curiosity.
I haven't got a definite answer. See if there's someone here knows.
I only get this from Wiki

...Many of the coal fields date to the Carboniferous period of Earth's history. Terrestrial plants also ...

Thank you very much

 

[Borek]

Generally speaking fossil fuels are produced from the accumulated organic matter, and there are definitely places in the world today where organic matter from dying plants/plankton get accumulated. From the moment life started on Earth This process never stopped, as it is part of the normal carbon cycle.

How fast it was in different epochs of the Earth history is another question.

 

[Stephanus]

Generally speaking fossil fuels are produced from the accumulated organic matter, and there are definitely places in the world today where organic matter from dying plants/plankton get accumulated. From the moment life started on Earth This process never stopped, as it is part of the normal carbon cycle.

How fast it was in different epochs of the Earth history is another question.

From the moment there were life on earth. I like it. Now this 4.4? billions years process is consumed/spent/wasted only in 300 years?

 

[DrDu]

While coal is still being formed, the richest deposits of coal are from the carboniferous era. The question arises why the deposits from younger ages aren't as extended as from the paleozoic. A possible answer is that this time coincides with estimates of the biological origin of the mycological enzyme systems to decompose lignin. I.e. after the carbon age, wood was decomposed much more effectively by fungi than before and this reduced the size of the deposits formed.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/336/6089/1715.abstract