Despite advances in geothermal technology and equipment

Despite advances in geothermal technology and equipment, experts rarely agree which method is the best indicator of a likely source of oil. Some believe the cycle of environmental changes determines the primary sources for crude oil, while others look to the evolution of organic matter as the most significant indicator. What they do agree on however, is where oil won’t be found. They agree that in areas that were scraped clean of organic sedimentary deposits by glaciers during the last million years or so, the biological “ingredients” that they believe are necessary for the formation of oil and gas are not present. That is, where glaciers have scoured a land mass, oil and gas will not be found.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the geologists’ view?

A. Relatively little of the earth’s surface is known to rest above the sort of organic sedimentary deposits described above.

B. Despite the existence of permanent glaciers, oil has been found at both the North and South Poles.

C. There are too many variables for experts to be able to identify what does and does not need to be present for the formation of oil.

D. The glacier theory cannot help locate oil in the ocean since ocean beds went untouched by glaciers.

E. Oil deposits of non-biological origin exist below the crust of the entire earth, and are brought nearer to the surface by cracks in the crust.