Some facts about viscosity of various types of hydrocarbon deposits might help to illuminate which designation is more accurate: Tar Sands or Oil Sands.
Viscosity is the primary measure of how petroleum deposits get classified. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum
Listed from most viscous (liquid) to least viscous (apparently solid at room temperature), we have:
- conventional oil (including light sweet, light sour)
- heavy oil
- extra heavy oil
- bitumen. (technical designation of the Albertan deposits)
Bitumen, also known as pitch, appears to be a solid at room temperature (as does tar, but tar is considered to be more liquid than pitch). Pitch was the subject of one of the longest running known scientific experiments, started in 1927. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment , which proved that bitumen is not a solid, but a very, very, very thick liquid, producing drops at a rate of one drop every 8 years or so.
So, from the petroleum industry's own classification system and the pitch drop experiment, we can clearly see that "Tar sands" is the more accurate designation. Now if one had been subjected to one-sided and/or misleading news coverage, one might have been misled into thinking that "oil sands" is more accurate. Things that should make one wonder...
