A screenshot from Facebook made the rounds on Reddit after someone confidently — and incorrectly — tried to explain where petroleum comes from. 

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, petroleum is a fossil fuel created from ancient plants, algae, and microorganism remains buried under layers of sediment and rock. 

Over millions of years, heat and pressure transformed the organic matter into crude oil and natural gas. It's a process that's well documented by geology and chemistry. 

The post, shared to r/confidentlyincorrect, shows a Facebook comment about green energy that quickly went off the rails. One participant insisted that oil doesn't come from ancient plants and marine life decomposing underground over millions of years. They instead thought it "forms naturally in the Earth's mantle."

Commenters were quick to point out that the claim simply isn't backed by modern science. 

In the 1950s, researchers explored the "abiogenic petroleum" theory mentioned by the OP in the comments. The theory proposes that oil is formed deep within Earth's mantle without any biological material. However, decades of data have shown that nearly all commercially extracted petroleum is biological in origin. 

Modern evidence, from carbon isotopes to fossilized biomarkers, confirm that oil comes from living organisms and not deep mantle chemistry. 

Knowing how petroleum actually forms matters because it helps scientists and policymakers plan for cleaner, more sustainable energy sources. The planet's oil reserves are finite. Relying on them continues to have serious health and environmental costs. 

Investing in renewable energy sources helps reduce pollution and dependence on fuels that take millions of years to form. 

Other Redditors registered their incredulity in the comments. 

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"This guy is so wrong," one person wrote. 

"Wow, their delusion is so detailed. I don't understand how they could think this. Who told them that?" asked someone else. 

"We may laugh, but for a lot of people it's not obvious who's right and who's wrong here. Since it's easier to come up with b*******, misinformation will travel much faster than correct information," wrote another Redditor. 

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