Asphalt/bitumen is similar to the organic matter in carbonaceous meteorites. However, detailed studies have shown these materials to be distinct. The vast Alberta bitumen resources are believed to have started out as living material from marine plants and animals, mainly algae, that died millions of years ago when an ancient ocean covered Alberta. They were covered by mud, buried deeply over the eons, and gently cooked into oil by geothermal heat at a temperature of 50 to 150 °C (120 to 300 °F). Due to pressure from the rising of the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Alberta, 80 to 55 million years ago, the oil was driven northeast hundreds of kilometres into underground sand deposits left behind by ancient river beds and ocean beaches, thus forming the oil sands. COUNT 5
QSN1 To what is the organic matter in asphalt similar? ANS1 meteorites QSN2 What did the Alberta bitumen mines begin as? ANS2 living material QSN3 What kind of living materials formed the basis of bitumen? ANS3 plants and animals QSN4 What feature originally covered Alberta? ANS4 ocean QSN5 What temperatures did the organic deposits need to form bitumen over the eons? ANS5 50 to 150 °C