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Oil formation
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Oil and gas forms in sedimentary ocean basins. Dead plankton (organic plant and animal material) gets deposited together with mud, sand and other sediments. In this early stage the plankton/sediment layer is called sapropel. Through an increase in temperature the sapropel is converted into kerogen. Folding or faulting forms traps where oil and gas can accumulate in the pore space of a source rock below the trap otherwise it will escape to the earth's surface as seepage. The liquid or gas that forms is known as 'hydrocarbons’.
