Fossil fuel is a collective term for buried, combustible deposits or organic materials formed from decayed plants and animals over millions of years ago that had been converted to different substances such as crude oil, coal, natural gas or heavy oils through heat and pressure exposure. They are sometimes known as mineral fuels.
The steps of fossil fuel formation are:
1. The plant uses energy found from its environment to form sugars and carbohydrates.
2. ANIMAL DEATH- for a fossil to form, an animal must die either in water or die out of the water. Water plays a vital role in the fossil formation because it helps in the preservation of the dead organism long enough for it to form.
3. BACTERIAL CONSUMPTION- bacteria eats away the soft parts and leaves the hard part such as the exoskeleton or bones. This hard body parts that are inherently resistant to bacterial erosion are the ones that forms into fossil.
4. SEDIMENTATION- this is the settling of dirt, dust or mud over these remains layer upon layer accumulate through the years
5. PERMINERALIZATION- layers of decomposed plants and animals are buried deep down the earth that they are squelched by the enormous mass of the earth creating intense heat and pressure.
6. After millions of years of heat and pressure, these buried materials transforms into chemicals known as hydrocarbons
7. These so called HYDROCARBONS can either be solid, liquid or gas. The solid form is known as coal. The liquefied form is the petroleum or crude oil. Lastly, the natural gas is the gaseous form.
