How Does The Oceanic Anoxic Event 2, on the rocks (H.Jenkyns) Work?

The ocean turned into a giant cookie jar, and Earth’s rocks became the cookies inside, here's how it happened!

Imagine you're baking a big batch of cookies, but instead of putting them on a tray, you toss them all into a cookie jar. That's what happened with the ocean during the Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (or OAE2 for short).

There was so much food, like carbon, floating around in the sea that it made a giant “cookie” layer inside the rocks, especially in places like Europe and North America. This extra carbon came from ancient plants and animals that had been buried deep underground and suddenly got eaten by the ocean.

When the cookie jar was full, the heat of Earth’s insides, kind of like an oven, cooked those cookies into special rock layers we can find today. These rocks are rich in oil and gas, just like how a cookie can be full of chocolate chips!

So, OAE2 is like when Earth baked a super tasty layer of cookies deep inside the ground, and now we can taste it as oil and gas!