Asphalt seeps

Turning to another civilization and the history of paint, we find that Noah was admonished to pitch the Ark within and without with pitch (Gen. 6 14). The word pitch refers to a liquid asphalt that seeped out of the ground today, on the island of Trinidad, there are still areas where asphalt seeps out of the ground. We may not normally think of asphalt as a paint, but we must remember that it is a coating, which makes it relevant to the history of paint. 

A petroleum seep is defined as visible evidence at the Earth s surface of the present or past leakage of oil, gas, or bitumen from the subsurface. Seeps have been utilized at least since ancient tribes of the Near East recovered blocks of asphalt from the Dead Sea. Many studies have demonstrated the worldwide correlation between seeps and earthquakes, with most visible seeps being near past or present areas of tectonic activity. The presence of seeps in a basin can considerably reduce the exploration risk because these seeps indicate that petroleum-forming processes have been active in the subsurface. In a situation where the major pathway for seeps is along a fault, the intensity and shape of the seep are significantly different from those situations where vertical leakage has occurred, and this difference permits their distinction. 

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