Deep Hot Biosphere author Gold dies

Thomas Gold, the controversial US-based astronomer and geoscientist, died yesterday in Ithaca, New York, at the age of 84.

In his 1998 book The Deep Hot Biosphere, Gold proposed that oil and coal are not remnants of ancient surface life that became buried and subjected to very high temperatures and pressures. Gold instead argued that these deposits are produced by deep-living thermophilic microorganisms. He claimed that volatile gases then migrate towards the surface through cracks in the crust, and either leak into the atmosphere as methane, become trapped in sub-surface gas fields, or lose their hydrogen to become oil, tar or coal. In other words, there must be reserves of fuel vastly in excess of the quantities that the gas and petroleum industry estimates.

Gold is best known for developing, along with Hermann Bondi and the late Fred Hoyle, the Steady State Theory of the universe (now largely believed to be incorrect).

On the other hand, his maverick theory that the lunar surface is covered with rock dust, as well as his controversial explanations for what pulsars are, and how the inner ear works, though all controversial when proposed, are now widely accepted as correct.

In which category will future generations put his Deep Hot Biosphere theory? And are we all accepting too uncritically the common wisdom about the origins of hydrocarbon deposits?

Thomas Gold: 1920–2004 @ PhysicsWeb
Deep Hot Biosphere @ Amazon