Massive undersea oil plume heading “toward an underwater canyon whose currents would ferry it straig

http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/massive-undersea-oil-plume-heading-toward-an-underwater-canyon-whose-currents-would-ferry-it-straight-to-floridas-west-coast

Massive undersea oil plume heading “toward an underwater canyon whose currents would ferry it straight to Florida’s West Coast”
BY OILFLORIDA, ON MAY 29TH, 2010
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University of South Florida researchers have discovered a huge plume of subsurface oil they say is heading from the Deepwater Horizon spill toward an underwater canyon whose currents would ferry it straight to Florida’s West Coast.

The plume – 22 miles long and more than 6 miles wide – is invisible, and can only be detected with special equipment and chemical tests.

But if it enters the DeSoto Canyon, it might spread droplets of oil throughout the ecosystem of West Florida’s waters, potentially washing the tiny plants and animals that feed larger organisms in a stew of toxic chemicals.

The plume, discovered by researchers on the University of South Florida College of Marine Science’s Weatherbird II vessel, may be a result of BP’s unprecedented – and controversial – use of chemical dispersants to break up oil directly at the site of the leak. It is the second such plume found so far, though the other was headed out to sea.

Larry McKinney, executive director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said the DeSoto Canyon off the Florida Panhandle sends nutrient-rich water from the deep sea up to shallower waters.

The plume was detected just beneath the surface of the Gulf, down to about 3,300 feet, said David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at USF.

Hollander said the team detected the thickest amount of hydrocarbons, likely from the oil spewing from the blown out well, at about 1,300 feet in the same spot on two separate days this week.

“The plume reaching waters on the continental shelf could have a toxic effect on fish larvae, and we also may see a long term response as it cascades up the food web,” Hollander said.

…

“The only oil we thought we had to worry about was the floating oil,” said Richard Dodge, the dean of the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center. “Now we have this still really undefined mass of submerged oil. … It’s another pool of oil that could impact Florida in yet unknown ways.

“We’ve been lucky so far,” he added. “But it still gets scarier.”

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/scientists-subsurface-oil-from-gulf-gusher-may-be-715592.html

You have been another of the bright lights on this board.

I know, even tho I don't know you, that you too have tears welling in your eyes.

The west coast of Florida will not escape. How could it? It has the longest coast on the gulf.

we've been around a while, and have seen some holy messes, but this is on a whole new level. lets hope it's not extinction level.

you know when i find myself the most vulnerable is when i'm listening to a news story about the helpless wildlife...i just can't stand it. these coastal regions are cathedrals to me. okay...welling up again. :cry:

Will never be the same

This is a crime that is like a knife in my heart. Mine and millions of others, and it could have been so easily prevented. But then again, I knew it was inevitable.

second home. i know them like the lines on my face. when i moved back in 2006 (after being away for 20+ years) i could not believe how high the tide lines were. it was shocking to say the least.

i've also not been generating the best karma here lately -- i'm blown away at the wrangling. this is not the time for political coup counting. i'm sickened and i've let that hang out there...i'm ashamed, and have apologized by PM to a few. and not to a few :evilgrin:

Wouldn't that mean that it is no longer crude oil and now some other toxic glob of gunk?

(Or are they referring to visibility from the surface?)

Invisible from the surface. It is what we call 'entrained' in the water.

It is one with the water and not floating as oil is wont to do.

This really could not be worse for the aquatic life in the gulf.

I posted this on May, 3rd. Where the oil was... and where it is now
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8263671

I did read that.

I remember feeling devastated after the hurricane took out our dunes in Destin back in the 1990s.

That seems like a non-event now.

:(

it kills me too. It's just that wildlife is helpless and has no clue. Which is why they disperse subsurface and why the shield the cleanup efforts.

Incidentally, spill size and dead animal count are the two measures used for liability size in the Exxon Valdez case...

I see like "600 dead birds reported" and the smaller Exxon spill had 600 K dead birds.

Its not like they can comprehend "beach closed" signs or "no fishing" maps.

:cry:

of gallons of toxic chemical dispersants into the ocean at great depths. This reacts with the oil, keeps it from rising to the surface, and makes the spill "invisible."

See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8445264

Can we not rely on "luck" and start protecting our shoreline? WHERE IS IT GOING?

...you get the idea. There's too much of it to stop that.

Cue the Doors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8ecXITshe8&feature=related

It is mixing with the water and is going into everything that it touches.

Eventually, it will become more diluted and make its way into the Atlantic, where it will be further diluted. The sooner the better, if I may be somewhat selfish.

Another earlier OP:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8270824

Eventually, one day, yes. "Further diluted" BPs thinking exactly, they say it will move out into the sea(s) and get eatin up. BULLSHIT! IT IS IN THE FUCKING GULF NOW AND IT IS KILLING GREAT AMOUNTS OF LIFE! Imagine if you coud hear them, the great wild life under the sea ....

:kick:

Thanks for posting this and not giving up! :thumbsup:

in finding out the truth of the situation.

As terrifying as it is, I'd rather know what's really going on than the lies BP has been feeding us and the controlled news from the embedded reporters.

Thanks for posting this,nashville_brook.

K&R

it makes me want to go back to school for that marine biology degree i coveted as a teenager.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052802346.html
A day after scientists reported finding a huge "plume" of oil extending miles east of the leaking BP well, on Friday a Louisiana scientist said his crew had located another vast plume of oily globs, miles in the opposite direction.

James H. Cowan Jr., a professor at Louisiana State University, said his crew on Wednesday found a plume of oil in a section of the gulf 75 miles northwest of the source of the leak.

Cowan said that his crew sent a remotely controlled submarine into the water, and found it full of oily globules, from the size of a thumbnail to the size of a golf ball. Unlike the plume found east of the leak -- in which the oil was so dissolved that contaminated water appeared clear -- Cowan said the oil at this site was so thick that it covered the lights on the submarine.

"It almost looks like big wet snowflakes, but they're brown and black and oily," Cowan said. The submarine returned to the surface entirely black, he said.



And we have yet to hear what the Bellows, which is another boat sent out by USF, has found since they said it would be 2 weeks to analyze the data (that was a week ago).

Now may be the time for you to go back for that degree. Looks like they and we can use all the help we can get.

i wonder if it will be news that there's places that haven't been touched by the oil. "look, a dolphin that's actually still alive."

and for a long, long time and for people, too.

I've noticed that the clean-up is following a similar pattern.

Workers with scant wages, minimal training, and little, if any, protective gear working cleaning toxic chemicals with dire short and long term health effects.

Posted a thread on it and it sunk without a response, though it had a few recs.

truth must be told regardless how enraging or tragic, this is both...

and I can't decide whether I should break their hearts by sending this link to them. Part of me wants to protect them as long as possible.

I keep thinking about a Maria Fornes play-"The Danube"-about a couple's touching attempts to maintain normalcy in the face of a slow-motion apocalypse.