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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on July 30, 2009 at 23:01

Are there significant amount of nonbiological carbon present in the earth's crust?

Even if the chemistry works, you've still got to have a source of carbon atoms, such as limestone, but limestone is biological in origin. Are there other common carbon containing minerals that aren't biological in origin?

Or are they assuming there's methane or other gas in deep strata? Is there CO2 down there that gets converted into something useful through chemical processes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin

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