Abstract
Publisher Summary Contamination of soils by petroleum hydrocarbons causes drastic changes in microbiological, chemical, and physical properties of soil. Crude oil and natural gas are the two commonest petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants of soils. Davis discovered that treating soils with natural gas would produce characteristics comparable to those of naturally occurring “paraffin dirt.” Crude oil and natural gas appear to produce similar effects in many soils. Microorganisms are also responsible for many of the conditions observed in soils that have become contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. Bacteria generally create reducing conditions in media from which oxygen is excluded. When natural gas or petroleum displaces the oxygen from the soil atmosphere, vigorous microbial activity may result in an increase of substances in a chemically reduced state. Large changes in the oxidation-reduction potential occur during the decomposition and assimilation processes that take place when saturated hydrocarbons are added to soils.
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