http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129304546&ft=1&f=1001
Who the heck changed my 4th grade biology???
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Giant Oil Plume Found Lurking Below Surface Of Gulf
by Dan Charles
August 20, 2010
Scientists have mapped out, for the first time, the underwater path that some petrochemicals took after gushing from BP's oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. It's an important new piece in a huge scientific puzzle.
Researchers are trying to figure out where as much as half of the spilled oil has gone.
Christopher Reddy, a co-author of the new study, says it was a big surprise when scientists first reported that large amounts of oil and oil compounds were staying underwater, rather than rising to the surface.
"If you’d asked me -– and I've been studying oil spills for 15 years -– whether or not you would see oil in the subsurface, I would have said 'No,'" he said at a news conference on Thursday. "Doesn't oil float?"
The phenomenon is fascinating, but also troublesome, he says, because if scientists don't know where the oil is, they also don't know what harm it may be causing.
In June, Reddy and his colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution took a research ship to the scene of the spill. They lowered a sensor deep into the water and towed it in a large circle around the blown-out well, looking for particular hydrocarbons that are easy to detect.
The sensor picked up a hydrocarbon signal southwest of the well, in a layer of water 3000 feet below the surface.
Richard Camilli, another researcher from WHOI, says they then sent down a new device -– a small unmanned submarine called Sentry.
"We had Sentry fly at a constant depth in kind of a zigzag pattern, moving out from the well site, tracking the plume," he said.
If you'd asked me -- and I've been studying oil spills for 15 years -- whether or not you would see oil in the subsurface, I would say, 'No, doesn't oil float?'"
The hydrocarbons, including benzene and toluene, were highly diluted in the water. They were coming from the gushing well, but they weren't spreading out in all directions. Instead, they followed an invisible underwater channel just over a mile wide and 650 feet thick. The researchers tracked that channel southwest for 22 miles, until bad weather forced them to stop.
They looked for signs that microorganisms are feasting on those petroleum products and breaking them down, but didn't see any. Reddy says they don't know exactly why.
"Microbes are a lot like teenagers," he says. "They work on their own time, at their own scale. They do what they want when they want."
There are many other unknowns. Reddy and his colleagues don't yet know how much of the oil from the well is in this plume. They hope to arrive at an estimate in a few months, after analyzing all their water samples. They also don't know how toxic the plume may be to wildlife.
Yet this is the best-documented case so far of oil flowing underwater. It was released on Thursday by the journal Science.
"This is a big piece of the puzzle," says Steven Murawski, science adviser for fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Murawski is trying to put the whole puzzle together. He is in touch with many of the research vessels –- as many as seven on any given day -– that are working in the Gulf of Mexico.
Murawski says additional scientific reports about oil in the deep sea around the well will be released in the coming weeks. But he'd like to see more scientists working in other places, such as on the continental shelf, the wide shallow area close to shore where most fish live. Murawski says he’s drafting plans to expand such research.
"Dr. Christopher Reddy specializes in marine chemistry & geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography, and researches organic contaminants in coastal and oceanic waters..."
Friday, August 20, 2010 4:20:21 AM
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Do the math- 3000 feet is over half a mile down!
What else might be there, suffering, from this unforgivable breach of man?
XOXO
Me
'Virtual Shellfish' Aid In Studying Oil's Effects
ReplyDeleteby Christopher Joyce August 20, 2010 More than 4 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and though some of that oil has now disappeared, scientists are trying to figure out what the remaining oil is doing to marine life. A damage assessment for a place the size of the Gulf is a huge and complicated job, but out of sight does not mean out of mind. Researchers at Mote Marine Lab have developed a "virtual shellfish" -- a device that captures contaminants in the water. After placing the device on the seafloor and collecting it 30 days later, scientists can calculate how much of a contaminant exists in animals and in sea life higher up in the marine food chain. "We want to say, 'Yes, everything's all good, the spill has been capped,' but in fact we don't...
... To read the rest of the story, click title above
XOXO
Me
Refined will gunk doesn't. the way oil was discovered in the gulf was because crude seeped out into the water, The sea life is used to a little bit of oil or they would have been dead long ago. I do agree that greed and lax regulations caused this
ReplyDeleteI don't think the millions of gallons that spewed into the Gulf could be classified as a little bit of oil...
ReplyDeleteHuh?
ReplyDeleteNot sure where you read about "greed and lax regulations", but it sure as heck wasn't even remotely mentioned in this article!
Please (re)read the article. No mention of any of this being "gunk".
XOXO
Me
ReplyDeleteI agree.
Mother Earth had her oil supplies nicely contained until man came along.
Any oil that the previous commenter referred to was put there by man.
XOXO
Me
ReplyDeletePersonally, I thought the whole article was fascinating!
What ever way you cut it, if it's specific gravity is higher than the local water it will sink.
ReplyDeleteThe Sea has many S.G. readings dependent on Rivers or Currents and the degree of salinity varies too. Anyway even before BP it was a polluted area, so no one knows the chemical reaction unless they can define the pollutant.
wow
ReplyDeletewow is all I can say too.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered how 1/3 of the sea's life was going to be destroyed and here is the beginning of that cycle. And these are the beginning of labor pains......
ReplyDeletenotice how no one is asking the dolphins where that oil went are they?
ReplyDeletethat amazes me too, cuz I always thought oil floated as well!
ReplyDeleteI knew it broke down a little but that's incredible Anna
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be a continuing nightmare for years to come. Seafood prices here that were high last year when we moved here are now super high.
ReplyDeleteOysters..that at one point before all this contamination were as low as $3.99 a doz around here...and that was for nice sized plump oysters. Now you are charged "market price" which is at about $8.99 a doz.depending on the resturant you are at..and they are tiny tiny little oysters. Its just so sad.
ReplyDeleteI can read- and reread- this and I still think it is amazing!
Especially taking into consideration that it is so huge.
Hi Mommy,
ReplyDeleteI can't believe all the damage that has been done and will continue to be done... All of this could've been prevented had the proper pieces been installed. It's a shame that something like this has to happen in the first place...
It saddens me to know that they are just now realizing the "depth" of issues this has caused. It's quite interesting to know that this is happening, but how are they going to fix it now that they know about it??? Yeah, microorganisms will eat up a lot of this crap, but can they take care of it all?? There is too much oil, and not enough microorganisms....
Can't wait until this gets fixed, although it will take years to fix the damage this spill has caused...
Love you MUCH MUCH!
~Casey