the.com/petroleum
Ancient sunlight, bottled by rock, burned to build the modern world.
means A flammable oily liquid found underground, formed from ancient organic matter, that gets refined into fuels, plastics, and countless other products.
from Straightforward Latin compound: petra (rock) plus oleum (oil) — literally 'rock oil,' distinguishing it from olive oil or other plant and animal oils people already knew. The word traces to medieval Latin petroleum, used for the naturally occurring oil seeping from the ground in various parts of the world long before anyone drilled for it. English picked up the term by the 1500s–1600s, well before industrial extraction made the substance famous.
- name history
- Called rock oil before petroleum became standard
- formation time
- Takes millions of years of heat and pressure
- first wells
- Commercial drilling began in Pennsylvania in 1859
- hidden uses
- Makes plastics, asphalt, and most synthetic fabrics too