... there's a lot more gold than oil ...
In what units? In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
And there's an awful lot of cubic metres in the sea. keep to the Fen Causeway
There's also plenty of gold dissolved in the rock of the mantle and at the center of the core. "Wood calculated that 1.6 quadrillion tons of gold must lie in Earth's core." That's 10*15 tons assuming he's using the modern numbering system. http://discovermagazine.com/2006/sep/innerfortknox Vs. 6000 billion barrels of oil in place, which is 6x10*15 http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/feature_articles/2004/worldoilsupply/oilsupply04.html
Vs. 6000 billion barrels of oil in place, which is 6x10
So they're actually not that far off from each other--within the error of these estimates at least. I'm surprised...
