natural gas

natural gas is actually generated at two stagesas aresult of two very different processes
immediately after burial
organic matter is usually subjected to attack by mathanogenic bacteria
these bacteria consume organic debris and release biogenic methane ch4
the principal component of natural gas
the gas may slowly escape as in some of the bubbles seen coming to the surface in swamps and bogs
or it may remain trapped in sufficiently large quantities to be extracted
the bacteria although uniquitous in near surface environmment do not survive the rising tempreture encountered durig deeper burial
in cotrast the rising burial temprature which often more or less conform with the average geothermal gradient of 25 c per kilometer result in some breakdown of largeorganic molecules into smaller ones that release methane
this thermogenic methan so called becase is form as aresult of temprature increase can become amajor resource in petroleum bearing strata or in coal beds