Science of Oil – Video
Summary
How Oil Forms: Science of Oil Video
This how oil forms video explains the origin of oil by tracing it back to tiny organisms that lived millions of years ago. Dr. Scott W. Tinker walks students through the full formation process, using clear language and a powerful visual analogy to make geologic time understandable.
The video begins with plankton—small plants and animals that live in oceans and lakes. When these organisms die, they sink and mix with sediment such as mud and clay. Over long periods of time, layers of sediment build up and bury the organic material deeper underground. As burial depth increases, heat and pressure slowly “cook” the organic matter, transforming it into oil. Students learn that this process takes 10 to 100 million years, highlighting why oil is considered a nonrenewable resource on human timescales.
To help students grasp the scale of geologic time, the video uses a 100-foot garden hose analogy. Each foot of the hose represents one million years. Walking the length of the hose helps students visualize how long oil formation takes and how small human history is by comparison. This analogy makes the concept memorable and works well as a discussion or writing prompt.
The video also explains that oil cannot be used in its natural state. It must be refined to create usable fuels and materials. Students learn that oil is refined into gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, lubricants, propane, asphalt, and many everyday products such as plastics and synthetic fabrics. This reinforces the connection between oil formation and modern life.
This how oil forms video works well as an introductory hook, a pre-reading activity, or a discussion starter in energy and Earth science units. It pairs naturally with the Science of Oil lesson and the vocabulary and quiz meant to accompany this video.
Transcript:
[Dr. Scott W. Tinker] Now, let’s talk about how oils form. It starts out as plankton, just like these. Plankton are just tiny little plants and animals that live in oceans and lakes today, and have through time, and when they die they sink to the bottom of those oceans with sediment, mud, and clay and become thick layers of basically inorganic mud. Now that mud is buried hundreds of feet thick and the organics in there- the plants and animals- get heated and pressured and cooked into crude oil. Now that takes 10 to 100 million years, which is a really long time. It’s hard to understand geologic time, but let’s take a look at a garden hose for example. This house is a hundred feet long. Imagine a foot: that’s a million years. If we walk down this hose 10 feet: 10 million years, 2, 30, 50, 70, 90, a hundred million years in the length of this hose. If we look just at the very end right here at the thread, see that last screw thread- the tiny little one right there- that represents all of human civilization. In fact, United States history: it doesn’t even show up on here. 100 million years is a long time, but that’s what it takes to make oil. Oil is a versatile product but we can’t use it in its native state. We have to refine it to make gasoline, about half of all oil goes into gasoline. We also make jet fuel and diesel fuels. We make lubricants and even propane like you put in your barbecue pit at home, and asphalt like we use in roads. In fact, oil is used for everything, it’s used to make polyester for our clothes, it’s used in building products, plastics which are everywhere in the world. But it all started as plankton.