hal@finney.org writes:
> Gold convinced a group to drill for oil in what was a highly unpromising
That was the Siljan Gas Project, where they drilled in the region
around lake Siljan in Sweden. The place is rather interesting, an old
impact crater (a few tens of kilometers across) where Gold's theories
said methane would have been trapped beneath the rock. There was quite
a bit of interest in the drilling, not unlike participating in a
lottery (OK, the likeliehood of winning is slight... but IF you
win!). As you said, the project failed to find any oil or gas.
> area by conventional standards, in the late 70s or early 80s, and as I
> recall the project was a complete failure. No mention of that in the
> article quoted here, though, which seemed more interested in colorizing
> the man than in whether his ideas are correct.
What they did find, and didn't realize the importance of, was strange organic gunk from deep in the ground. I remember seeing it on television and thinking "Hmm, could that be bacterial films from deep in the rock?" - they might have discovered the subterranean ecosystem several years ahead if they had not been too hungry for oil.
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