For some years now, the term ‘peak oil’ has been presented both as a forecast and a warning.

As a forecast, it asserts oil is a finite resource, one which was formed millions of years ago when remains of dead organisms sank to the sea bottom and were there trapped and transformed into oil.

Opinions differ on what volume exists and what proportion is economically accessible, but they all agree that there is a fixed volume, though not all of it may yet have been found.

Once it is all used up there will be no more.

Therein lies the warning. Today’s world economy – agricultural, industrial and social – is dependent on oil. How can it be sustained when there is no more, at any price? Are we developing alternatives and modifying our lifestyle quickly or thoroughly enough to manage without oil?

This rather gloomy outlook may soon undergo a major change, one that could alleviate some problems and create others.

New evidence has been unearthed (forgive the pun) by an international team of geologists and geophysicists, which gives strong support to an old and once discredited Russian theory. It proposes that new oil is being formed even now.

Deep in the upper mantle of the earth’s crust, 40 kilometres or more below the surface, very high temperatures and pressures are generating hydrocarbons, or oil. This oil migrates laterally and upwards through fissures in the crust.

Tracing the fissures to find where they come together will find pools of oil amounting to 200 billion barrels or more. This volume is approximately the same as the known Saudi Arabian reserves, which make up almost a third of the world’s total. And, unlike Arabian oil, it is being continuously augmented.

Should this idea be proven – and its supporters are very confident – the world oil scene will be turned on its head. Those enamoured of their gasoline-powered cars and other vehicles may be able to relax and rejoice again; those who deplore emissions of greenhouse gases will be aghast.

International politicians are likely to be concerned at the prospect of a more powerful and influential Russia as an oil super-power, and how will the oil-dominant Middle Eastern countries regard a serious rival?

This little snippet of research news will not solve the mystery of Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster, but the finding of a 164-million-years-old turtle fossil on the coast of the Isle of Skye, not far from Loch Ness, provides a link between ancient terrestrial and modern aquatic life.

The remains were found in sedimentary rocks formed in closed water systems and show that Skye’s climate was once much warmer than it is nowadays.

Dr. Roy Strang writes weekly on the environment for the Peace Arch News. rmstrang@shaw.ca