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Associated PressWASHINGTON — The government says water tests have confirmed underwater oil plumes as far as 142 miles from the BP oil spill, but that concentrations are "very low."
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenko said that the tests conducted at three sites by a University of South Florida research vessel confirmed oil as far as 3,300 feet below the surface 42 miles northeast of the well site and also oil below-surface oil 142 miles southeast.
Lubchenko said the analysis "indicate there is definitely oil sub surface. It's in very low concentrations" of 0.5 parts per million.
BP had questioned whether oil actually was forming below water.
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Killer Undersea Oil Plumes From BP Spill Lurk in Gulf of Mexico June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Undersea plumes of oil that can kill off marine life have been confirmed stretching for miles in the Gulf of Mexico from BP Plc’s leaking Macondo well, according to findings researchers will announce today.
Water samples collected by the R/V Weatherbird II vessel show biodegraded crude oil in two undersea plumes about 22 miles (35 kilometers) northeast of BP’s seabed leak, according to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of South Florida.
“Very specifically, we can now say there is biodegraded oil in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico,” Vickie Chachere, a spokeswoman for the University, said. She couldn’t confirm how much oil the plumes may contain. Researchers have said the oil slick washing ashore is a small portion of what has leaked and the undersea crude can wipe out marine life while remaining invisible from the surface.
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‘Huge Volumes’
The oil was found in two layers of the ocean at 400 meters and 1,000 meters. The university’s scientists tracked the plumes for tens of kilometers, starting 35 kilometers north-northeast of the well, Chachere said.
“These are huge volumes of oil, many kilometers of oil, and to have oil in many cubic kilometers of water suggests a very significant total amount,” said Ian MacDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State University in Tallahassee, who is doing separate research on the spill.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-08/killer-undersea-oil-plumes-from-bp-spill-lurk-in-gulf-of-mexico.html