Fuels What are fossil fuels? Coal, oil and natural gas are all types of fossil fuels. They are called fossil fuels

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Nicole Martin 10YNT

Fuels

What are fossil fuels?

Coal, oil and natural gas are all types of fossil fuels. They are called fossil fuels because there are only limited supplies of these materials. Also they were the remains of living things which died millions of years ago.

Coal is the remains of dead plants.  Millions of years ago the Earth was mainly vegetation. When the trees and other plants died they sank to the bottom of swamps. Years passed, years turned into decades and decades turned into millenniums, the layers of trees became deeper. Later on many swamps were replaced with rivers which carried sediment rock. The sediment was deposited on top of the layers of tree. However there was so little oxygen under all the sediment bacteria, which meant that the tree could not decay away. Instead they were crushed and compressed and turned into coal. Coal is a sedimentary rock. At the start of this process in the swamp was; equal layers of rock, dead tree and sediment. Over the years it changed to; a small layer of coal and a large layer of sediment.

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Oil and natural gas were made in an analogous way; the only difference is they consisted of dead animals and plants in the sea. When the creatures and plants died they sank to the bottom of the sea where they were covered in sediment. As there was also no oxygen the remains did not decompose. The remains of the organisms broke down and released oil. Natural gas was due to heat and pressure from the material above and below. The oil and gas reached the surface by leaking through all the porous rocks.

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