THE ORIGIN OF THE ANTICLINAL THEORY OF OIL ACCUMULATION: I. C. WHITE VS T. S. HUNT

Pittsburgh was the center of oil and gas production in America towards the end of the 19^th Century. However, the location of oil pools was a mystery to early oil men. Many of the early workers noted that oil reserves occurred in valleys; however, production was not always guaranteed. This phenomenon wasn’t properly addressed until American geologists Thomas Sterry Hunt and Israel C. White, while working together for the Pennsylvania geological Survey 1875-1878, recognized the valley theory noted by early oil men and probably discussed the idea of oil entrapment in anticlines.

Hunt (1861) mentioned the anticlinal theory in the Canadian Naturalist and Geologist: “The oil doubtless...being lighter than water ...rises to higher portion of the formation, which is the crest of an anticlinal axis...” White, however, put the theory to the test in 1883 and discovered many oil fields in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. White (1885) published “The Anticlinal Theory of Gas Accumulation,” in Science after these discoveries and became the reputed “Father of the Anticlinal Theory.” Since the beginning of the 20^th century, there has been much discussion of who was the “father,” as Germany and Australian geologists also made the exact same observation during the late 1800s. And, while Hunt published his observations prior to White’s detailed analyses of the anticline theory, it is the conclusion of this writer that both White and Hunt share the spotlight as the “Father of the Anticlinal Theory of Petroleum Accumulation.”