dt030
dt030 t1_iuj88ya wrote
Reply to comment by OrneryGringo in Eli5: how is it possible that a wooden barrel, which is used for aging alcohol, does not rot away. by OrneryGringo
> But when those trees died, the bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that today would have chewed the dead wood into smaller and smaller bits were missing, or as Ward and Kirschvink put it, they “were not yet present.”
> Where Are They? Bacteria existed, of course, but microbes that could ingest lignin and cellulose—the key wood-eaters—had yet to evolve. It’s a curious mismatch. Food to eat but no eaters to eat it. And so enormous loads of wood stayed whole. “Trees would fall and not decompose back,” write Ward and Kirschvink.
dt030 t1_iuj67vb wrote
Reply to Eli5: how is it possible that a wooden barrel, which is used for aging alcohol, does not rot away. by OrneryGringo
Would you be interested to know that the coal we dig out of the ground is compressed wood but it was from before bacteria knew how to decompose wood. So the wood just piled high on top of each other and compressed into coal (it did not rot).
Alcohol kills bacteria.
dt030 t1_iuj9hu3 wrote
Reply to comment by OrneryGringo in Eli5: how is it possible that a wooden barrel, which is used for aging alcohol, does not rot away. by OrneryGringo
It certainly wouldn’t form the same way to the same level as it did in that period.
I’m not sure if there is none being formed or whether, meteor, nuclear winter, biblical flood could result in the formation of new layers of coal.