Question

Coal, petroleum, natural gas and propane are called fossil fuels. They are called fossil fuels because ______________ .

Answer 1

Hint: Take any one of the fossil fuels, like coal. Now understand how coal is formed. The formation of coal under extreme temperature will help you understand why coal or the other gases are called fossil fuels. You can answer this question if you know from what the above fuels are obtained.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock which is brownish black in color. Coal consists of mainly carbon along with other elements like hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dead plant matter decays leading to the formation of peat. Peat is then converted to coal upon exposure to extreme temperature and pressure buried for millions of years.
Similar to coal, petroleum and natural gas are formed from the remains of ancient marine organisms like plants, algae and bacteria.
Therefore, they are called fossil fuels because they were formed from the buried remains of plants and tiny animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago.

The correct answer is option (B).


Note: Although fossil fuels are an important source of energy, they are highly toxic to nature. Burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide as a by-product along with energy which is a greenhouse gas. Due to emission of carbon dioxide, global warming is on a rise.