One can say OVER 200 YEARS! or One can say ONLY 200 years. On the global
scale, the total area where strata is exposed at the surface is very small.
And the number of wells drilled does not begin to give a complete picture
of the hidden strata. There is a lot of extrapolation based upon a
reletively small quantity of evidence.
Every time some identifies ns assemblage of fossils they test
> the previously established ordering of fossils. Millions of dollars ride
on the
> results of biostratigraphy in the petroleum industry. If there was any
problem
> in the order because it was based on inadequate sampling they would be
evident
> by now. Certainly the petroleum industry has no vested interest in
sustaining
> a concept which did not work and every reason to find an alternativfe it
it
> would both save and make them money.
If biostratigraph is that good, why don't they hit oil each time they
drill?
Allen