Today's fossil fuels began forming 300 million years ago. What allowed the process to begin?
A Mammals ate all of the plants
B Rainfall eroded huge mountains
C Dinosaurs roamed the land
D Many huge plants grew, died, and decayed
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um a little more help please
Please do not double post.
Read the post on the net. It tells you EXACTLY what you want to know.
um a little more help please
my mistake
No problem! I'm here to help. The answer to the question is D) Many huge plants grew, died, and decayed.
To explain how this process allowed the formation of fossil fuels, we first need to understand what fossil fuels are. Fossil fuels are formed from the remains of dead organisms that were buried and underwent heat and pressure over millions of years. The most common types of fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas.
During the Carboniferous period, which occurred around 300 million years ago, the Earth's climate was warm and moist. This provided an ideal environment for the growth of huge plants, particularly during the early stages of the period when there were no large plant-eating animals like dinosaurs.
As these large plants grew, they absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. When the plants died, they fell into swamps and were rapidly buried by layers of sediment. Over time, the weight of the sediment compressed and compacted the organic material, eventually turning it into coal.
The process of forming oil and natural gas is slightly different. The layers of sediment also buried the remains of microscopic marine organisms, such as plankton, which accumulated in large quantities on the ocean floor. Over millions of years, heat and pressure from the overlying sediment transformed these remains into oil and natural gas.
So, in summary, it was the abundance of large plants during the Carboniferous period that allowed the formation of fossil fuels. As these plants died and decayed in swamps and oceans, their organic remains were gradually transformed into coal, oil, and natural gas through heat and pressure over millions of years.