Eli5: Why is oil referred to as fossil fuel?
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Crude oil exists as a byproduct of decomposing organic materials from extremely long ago, just like fossils are remnants of those same organisms.
Oil comes from the ground because large deposits of organic matter were buried by various events (earthquakes, glaciers, etc.) and trapped underground to decompose. Because there wasn’t the typical exposure to bacteria and oxygen and what not, the buried organic matter decomposed in a wildly different way than regular decomposition on the surface of the ground.
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