Rock Types for Dummies

Schematic of the rock cycle

Some people just don't know when to quit, do they? Well, we suppose that in their defense, sometimes they're not allowed to quit when they should. We're not talking about Peyton Manning here, we're talking about eHow contributors under the lash of that site's minimum word count rule. That's why some of the articles on the site say so many stupid things: trying to pad the content out to meet the minimum. Today's example is repeater Elyse James, with her Journalism BA, trying (and failing) to answer a question that should have taken fewer than ten words. The question? "In What Type of Rocks Are Fossil Fuels Found?"¹ (now hiding at niche site OurPastimes.com for unknown reasons). Elyse's word count? About three hundred... a lot of them wrong.

According to the Antisocial Network's staff geologist, the answer is "Except in extremely rare cases, fossil fuels are found only in sedimentary rocks." Note that he said "sedimentary" rocks -- there are only three types of rocks; igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Well, James sort of started out on the right foot, because she explained that

"Sedimentary rock plays a large role in the primary stages of fossil fuel formation."

Well, duh: sedimentary rocks are (unless you're a Russian geochemist) the only rock type involved in the process of fossil fuel formation. And by the way, Elyse, there's more to the process than

"...layering of rocks creates pressure and is one of the first steps in the formation of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas..."

,,,because you also need heat (and time) to convert organic matter contained within those sedimentary rocks into hydrocarbons. But we'll let that slide. Where Elyse goes completely wonky is when she misinforms her readers that there are two other "rock types" involved,

"Porous Rocks: Porous rocks play a part in the end stages of fossil fuel formation, particularly for the formation of oil and natural gas. Porous rocks, like the name suggests, are rocks that have lots of pores on their surface just like a sponge..." and "Nonporous Rocks: Nonporous rocks do not have any holes in their surface and oil and gas cannot pass through them. Nonporous rocks are crucial to the final stages where oil and natural gas collect because they provide a nonpenetrable [sic] barrier for the fossil fuels...

Debunking time: at the very least, these are Elyse's screwups -- 

1. Porosity in rock has nothing to do with fossil fuel formation. The pores provide space for eventual storage (a reservoir rock), but that's not part of the process. Oh, and by the way, both porous rocks and sponges have pores throughout – not just "on their surface." You're apparently thinking of skin...
2. You really wanted to say "impermeable rocks," but you probably couldn't spell it; just like you couldn't spell "impenetrable." 
3. What do porosity and permeability have to do with coal? Your answer is entirely about oil and natural gas – coal is a most important natural resource.
4. "Porous rock" isn't a rock type. Neither is "nonporous rock" – yet you treat them as "rock types," dumbass, even saying that "...three types of rocks are commonly associated in the formation of fossil fuels: sedimentary rock, porous and nonporous rocks."

Using 300 words to answer a question that could have been answered in ten is the hallmark of eHow's stable of incompetent journalism majors, and this is a perfect example. The very least they could do is get the added padding right, but Elyse failed to do so – and that's why she's our Dumbass of the Day.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/list_7393438_type-rocks-fossil-fuels-found_.html

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