Petroleum is a mixture of paraffin compounds all the way from the gases, through gasoline, kerosene, lubricating oils, and vasoline to paraffin. In some of the crude oils there is also an admixture of compounds from the benzine series, in which case, when all the volatile compounds have been distilled off, an asphalt remains. The different components of petroleum may be separated out by heating the crude oil in closed tanks, and drawing off the various substances at the proper temperatures.
Petroleum occurs in sedimentary rocks of marine origin, usually rocks which also contain the shells of some of the animals, the soft parts of which made the oil. To have been preserved the millions of years since the petroleum was first formed, the oil-bearing layers must have been covered by some impervious layer of rock, beneath the domes and anticlines of which the oil has lain ever since. When such a dome or anticlinal fold is perforated by a well, the released oil flows to the surface with a greater or less rush, according to the pressure. Wells may keep flowing for 20 years, sometimes more, sometimes much less. Those which flow with the greatest pressure usually are relatively short lived, at times lasting only a year or two. When this easily obtained oil is exhausted, there is an even greater supply to be obtained by the distillation of the bituminous shales. Petroleum never occurs in igneous or metamorphic rocks, but is found in either sandstones or shales, in places favorable for accumulation, all across that great stretch of ancient sea bottoms, extending from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rocky Mountains, and in the Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Range, and also to the west of the Sierras.
[Bitumen]
Where petroleum has escaped through pores in the rocks, or by way of fissures, and has come to the surface of the earth, the lighter components, thus exposed to the air, have vaporized and escaped, leaving behind a more or less solid residue, which is known as bitumen. If the escape was through a fissure, the bitumen may have accumulated in the fissure until it was filled, making vein bitumen. Or the escape may have been so rapid that the petroleum formed a pool or lake from the surface of which evaporation took place. In time such a pool will give off the gases and volatile compounds, only a residue remaining to make a pitch lake, like the one at Rancho Le Brea near Los Angeles, or an asphalt lake like the one on the island of Trinidad. On account of their varying hardness and composition, some of these bitumens have received special names; as:
Albertite, a black bitumen with a brilliant luster on broken surfaces, a hardness between 1 and 2, and a specific gravity a shade over 1.
Grahamite, a black bitumen, which is brittle, but has a dull luster, a hardness of 2, and a specific gravity of 1.15.
Gilsonite or Uintaite, a black bitumen with a brilliant luster and a conchoidal fracture, a hardness of 2 to 2½, and a specific gravity of 1.06.
Malta is a semi-liquid viscid natural bitumen, which has a considerable distribution in California.
The above varieties of bitumen look a good deal like coal, but are easily distinguished by their lightness (weight about half that of coal), and the fact that with only moderate heat they melt, and become a thick liquid like tar.