Ohio Black Gold EarthCache
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The above posted coordinates will lead you to an Ohio first. The
Thorla-McKee Well.
In 1814, Silas Thorla and Robert McKee accidently discovered oil
while drilling a well about 200 feet deep at this site using a
spring pole.
During Late Devonian time, about 350 million years ago, the inland
sea that stretched across Ohio and adjacent areas to the north and
south, became stagnated so that the bottom waters were foul and
bottom-dwelling animals could not survive. However, the upper
waters of this sea were oxygenated and supported plankton and a
variety of early fishes. The organic matter from the dead plankton,
as well as the dead fish, settled to the bottom of the sea along
with particles of clay washed in from deltas and mountains to the
east, forming a thick bed of sediment that eventually would become
the Ohio Shale.
This tough, cliff-forming shale is dark in color and crops out in a
north-south band from the Ohio River northward through the central
part of the state, then eastward along portions of the Lake Erie
shore. It is rich in organic hydrocarbons (kerogen) and is
considered an oil shale. Large, rounded, carbonate concretions are
common in some zones of the Ohio Shale.
Oil and natural gas are the chemically altered remains of
microscopic plants and animals that lived in considerable abundance
in ancient seas. As these remains settled with sediment to the
bottom of oxygen-poor seas and were buried beneath thick layers of
sediment, hydrocarbons (hydrogen and carbon) were altered to waxy
kerogen in black shales such as the Ohio Shale. As the rock became
more deeply buried and warmer, oil began to form from the kerogen
at about 90 degrees C and then to natural gas at about 160 degrees
C. Temperatures above 250 degrees C destroyed the oil and gas. This
temperature range is known as the Oil Window. Later, the oil and
gas may flow from the source rock to a reservoir rock where it may
be trapped between the sediment grains and discovered and produced
by oil and gas companies.
Some suggest that the Ohio River Valley at one time may have
contained as much oil as the Middle East. It is theorized that most
of this underground oil escaped to the surface due to the lack of
subsurface rock structures that collect oil into reservoirs. Once
the oil reached the surface it simply dissapated.
Because of this first well, drilled in 1814 on the outskirts of
modern-day Caldwell, Noble County claims to be the site of the
first oil well in the United States.
If you are lucky, you may get to see some crude bubble up in the
well water.
Source; http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/
Developed by a Platinum Earthcache Master
In order to log a successful find you must fulfill the following
requirements:
#1 Post a photo of yourself holding your GPS unit with the well in
the background.
Email me the answers to the following questions;
#2 What were Thorla and McKee originally drilling for ?
#3 How was oil collected from this well?
#4 How was the oil from this well originally marketed?
Additional Hints
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