Instructions

In this activity, you will design an investigation and use research and reasoning to predict and analyze data on the factors that influence oil formation.

Background Information

Oil forms from ancient organic matter (mainly plankton) that gets buried by sediments over millions of years. As the organic matter is buried deeper in the earth, it is subjected to heat and pressure. Over time, these conditions cause chemical reactions that transform the organic material into oil and gas.

The process of oil formation can be simplified to three main factors:

Experimental Design

1. Hypothesis: Write a hypothesis about how one of the factors (temperature, pressure, or time) influences oil formation.

2. Experimental Design: Identify each of the following components of your experiment. 

3. Materials: Describe what materials would be needed in a real lab setting to simulate the conditions of temperature, pressure, and time (e.g., a heated chamber for temperature, a pressurized chamber for pressure).

4. Data Collection: How would you measure oil formation? Would you use indicators like color change, amount of liquid produced, or another measurable property?

5. Procedure: Write a step-by-step procedure for how the experiment would be carried out.

6. Simulate Data Collection: 

• Use secondary data from online sources or research studies to find typical rates of oil formation under different conditions.
• Estimate what kind of oil formation you might expect under various temperature, pressure, and time scenarios.
• Make a data table that would show the data to be collected.  How many different values or conditions of the independent variable will you test? For each condition, how many trials will you conduct to ensure reliable results?

7. Graphing and Data Analysis:

• Use your predicted data to create graphs, using your independent (x-axis) and dependent (y-axis) variables. 
• Interpret your graph and discuss the relationships. Do the findings support or refute your hypothesis?

Discussion Questions

Be prepared to discuss the following with the class. 

• Based on your experiment design, which factor do you believe is most important in oil formation: temperature, pressure, or time? Why?
  
  
  
  
  
  

• How do you think this experiment would change if you used different types of organic material (like plant matter vs. plankton)?
  
  
  
  
  
  

• If you were able to conduct this experiment with actual equipment, how would you ensure that you get accurate and reliable results?
  
  
  
  
  
  

• How do these results relate to real-world oil exploration? How do geologists determine where oil might be found?