Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumWhere did the Deepwater Horizon oil go? To Davy Jones' Locker at the bottom of the sea
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[font size=5]Where did the Deepwater Horizon oil go? To Davy Jones' Locker at the bottom of the sea[/font]
[font size=4]New analysis traces oil to its resting place on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor[/font]
[font size=3]October 27, 2014
Where's the remaining oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico?
The location of 2 million barrels of oil thought to be trapped in the deep ocean has remained a mystery. Until now.
Scientist David Valentine of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of California, Irvine, have discovered the path the oil followed to its resting place on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor.
The findings appear today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"This analysis provides us with, for the first time, some closure on the question, 'Where did the oil go and how did it get there?'" said Don Rice, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research along with NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.
"It also alerts us that this knowledge remains largely provisional until we can fully account for the remaining 70 percent."
For the study, the scientists used data from the Natural Resource Damage Assessment conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The U.S. government estimates the Macondo Well's total discharge--from April until the well was capped in July--at 5 million barrels.
By analyzing data from more than 3,000 samples collected at 534 locations over 12 expeditions, the researchers identified a 1,250-square-mile patch of the sea floor on which four to 31 percent of the oil trapped in the deep ocean was deposited. That's the equivalent of 2 to 16 percent of the total oil discharged during the accident.
The fallout of oil created thin deposits that are most extensive to the southwest of the Macondo Well. The oil is concentrated in the top half-inch of the sea floor and is patchily distributed.
Valentine and colleagues were able to identify hotspots of oil fallout in close proximity to damaged deep-sea corals.
According to the researchers, the data support the previously disputed finding that these corals were damaged by the Deepwater Horizon spill.
"The evidence is becoming clear that oily particles were raining down around these deep sea corals, which provides a compelling explanation for the injury they suffered," said Valentine.
"The pattern of contamination we observe is fully consistent with the Deepwater Horizon event but not with natural seeps--the suggested alternative."
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http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/10/23/1414873111.full.pdf+html
Autumn
(45,096 posts)We make poor steward of this earth. Rec
marym625
(17,997 posts)OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)Caption: This image shows hydrocarbon contamination from Deepwater Horizon overlaid on sea floor bathymetry, highlighting the 1,250 square mile area identified in the study.
Credit: G. Burch Fisher
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Very much more to the point. Just wanted to show the pictures
Judi Lynn
(160,542 posts)Tons of BP Oil Is Still on the Bottom of the Gulf of Mexico
A new study shows that cleanup efforts barely scratched the surface.
By Tim McDonnell
| Mon Oct. 27, 2014 3:01 PM EDT
We all saw the images of oil-coated birds and shorelines in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill. These were the most visible impacts of the catastrophe, but much of the oil that gushed from the busted Macondo wellhead 5,000 feet underwater never made it to the surface. Of the estimated 5 million barrels that spilled, approximately 2 million stayed trapped in the deep ocean. And up to 31 percent of that oil is now lying on the ocean floor, according to a new study.
Based on an analysis of sea-floor sediment samples collected from the the Gulf of Mexico, geochemists at the University of California-Santa Barbara were able to offer the first clues about the final resting place of hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil. Their results were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The data, which was gathered as part of the ongoing federal damage assessment, shows "a smokingly clear signal, like a bulls-eye" around the Macondo well, said lead author David Valentine.
When oil first began to shoot out of the broken well, some 2 million barrels' worth broke up into microscopic droplets before reaching the surface and became suspended in the deep ocean, Valentine said. His goal was to discover the fate of that oil, beyond the reach of any cleanup efforts, four years after the spill. The researchers combed through the sediment samples for traces of hopane, a chemical compound found in crude oil that doesn't break down over time. Hopane was also used as a indicator of oil distribution following the Exxon-Valdez spill in 1989.
More:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/10/bp-deepwater-horizon-study-oil-ocean-floor
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Because the law says they would be responsible for the amount of oil they spilled.
Said amount could not be measured if it went to floor of the Gulf.
BP literally buried the evidence and in the process, dumped toxic Corexit all over the Gulf, and the shore, and on towns near the shore.
And WE knew it then! It was talked about for months in local news and local reports, esp. in Louisiana.
marym625
(17,997 posts)Has many articles regarding just this spill and many more on BP and its negligence and continuous disregard for the law.