Pin the Tail on the Oil Donkey

 by: Austin Culley

For all your kids out there trying to come up with an essay topic to write about, why not bump those grades up by doing a little research on oil. Not peanut butter oil, or olive oil, but oil - the kind that helps to run the car you hope to one day drive.

Donkeys

Now, first of all, what exactly is an Oil Donkey? Well, it's actually called a Nodding Donkey, and what a Nodding Donkey does is help pump oil out of the ground so that we can get our paws on it. You can find a good picture of one of these donkeys at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodding_donkey. As a matter of fact, outside of this article, you could probably find a whole lot of information about oil, otherwise known as petroleum, at this Wiki Web Site. It's a great resource for information.

Dinosaurs and Diatoms

Oil is considered a "Fossil Fuel", meaning that it is an organic substance that comes from the fossils of animals who have long parted the earth. Many people think this means that oil comes from dead dinosaurs; however, it is more likely that oil was formed from the bodies of very small creatures such as diatoms and foraminifera.

Decomposition

After a long period of time, the skeletons of these fossils decompose to turn into thick deposits of mud. Over thousands of years, layer upon layer of this mud builds up, and the lower layers become hard as rock. Time, pressure, and heat caused from the earth's core is what is believed to turn this organic decomposition into crude oil and natural gas.

Drilling

Deep within the earth there are a few different places where oil and gas pockets can pool together. One of these places can be in porous rocks, such as sandstone, which is a rock that has spaces in it and looks like a sponge close up. This is one of the places we collect oil from by drilling a well hole deep into the ground to get to it. After the well hole is drilled, the oil is pumped out and refined into different products we use in everyday life, like to run our cars and heat our homes if it gets cold.

Our Dependence on Oil

You see, this is a great subject to do an essay on because oil is an important part of our lives. We depend on it for many things that help make our lives more comfortable. Good luck with your essay, and I hope you get an "A".