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It is a bituminous oily liquid of natural origin comprising various organic substances. It is found in large amounts on the surface and is used as fuel and raw material for the chemical industry. Oil and its derivatives are used to make medicines, fertilizers, food, plastic objects, building materials, paints and textiles and to generate electricity.

Oil rig.


characteristics



All types of oil are composed of hydrocarbons, but also usually contain a few compounds of sulfur and oxygen. Oil containing gaseous, liquid and solid elements. The consistency varies from a low viscosity liquid such as gasoline to as thick liquid hardly flows.



There are categories of the paraffinic crude oil type, the type of asphalt and mixed base.


Training



Oil is formed under the surface by the decomposition of marine organisms. The remains of tiny animals that live in the sea are mixed with sand and silt that fall to the bottom in the calm sea basins. These deposits, rich in organic materials, become oil source rocks. The process began many millions of years ago when living organisms emerged in large numbers, and continues to the present. The sediments become more dense and sink to the ocean floor under its own weight. As they accumulate additional reservoirs, the pressure on lower down is multiplied by several thousand, and the temperature increases by several hundred degrees. The silt and sand harden and turn into shale and sandstone; the precipitated carbonates and the remains of shells become limestone, and soft tissues of dead organisms become oil and natural gas.



Once formed the oil, it flows upward through the crust because its density is less than brines that saturate the interstices of the shale, sand and carbonate rocks that constitute the cortex. Oil and natural gas rise through microscopic pores of sediments located above. Often they end up finding an impermeable shale or a layer of dense rock: oil is trapped, forming a deposit. However, a significant part of oil will not run into impermeable rock but springs at the surface or in the ocean. Among the superficial deposits also include bituminous lakes and natural gas leaks.


(Production of oil.)




A major cause of ocean pollution are oil spills. 46% of petroleum and petroleum industrial discharged into the sea are residues that overturn the coastal cities. The sea is used as a very accessible and cheap tank of polluting substances, and the situation will not change until there are strict controls, with severe penalties for offenders.


13% of spills due to accidents suffered by large oil container ships that negligence of the authorities and lack of interest from oil companies carry the fuel in inadequate conditions. In recent years, some of the most spectacular accidents were the tanker of the Exon Valdes, occurred off the coast of Alaska on March 24, 1989, and the tanker Aegean Sea, December 3, 1992, opposite the entrance to the port of La Coruna in Spain. Another 32% comes from spills washing tanks of large ships carrying the fuel.

Both oil spills such as forest fires seriously affect food webs of ecosystems.




Spills cause great mortality of waterfowl, fish and other living creatures of the oceans. This alters the balance of the ecosystem and modifies the food chain. It becomes impossible in the affected areas, fisheries, navigation and use of beaches for recreation.




In forest fires the trees are not the only ones affected: many animals are trapped in smoke, while others migrate.