The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 2010 reached the Louisiana shoreline Friday, and bad weather threatens to push the oil slick into the wetlands. Klearchos Guide to the Galaxy photo.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill 2010, which reached the shoreline Friday, could be one of the worst environmental disasters in history. Thursday cleanup officials determined the oil spill leaking from the wellhead is five times worse than first thought. Following the explosion and sinking of an oil rig 50 miles off the Louisiana coast on April 20 that killed 11 people, an estimated 5,000 barrels — more than 200,000 gallons — a day spews into the sea. Meanwhile, a weekend storm threatens to push the oil spill deep into Louisiana’s coastal wetlands. Local government: Prepare to borrow money for cleanup efforts. The U.S. Coast Guard has summoned the U.S. military for assistance, while petroleum engineers consider worst-case scenarios.
Bad weather drives oil spill to Gulf of Mexico coast
The oil spill on the gulf coast arrived onshore late Thursday, as faint fingers of the oil slick reached the Mississippi River delta, according to the Associated Press. A thicker oil slick farther offshore is being driven landward by choppy seas of 6 to 7 feet and tides several feet above normal. Storms forecast by the National Weather Service in New Orleans will bring strong southeasterly winds ranging from 20 to 25 miles an hour. Thunderstorms, which some fear could ignite the oil slick, were forecast through Monday morning. The Atlanta Business News reports that an animal rescue operation at Fort Jackson, about 70 miles southeast of New Orleans, treated a young northern gannett (a large seabird) found offshore covered in thick, black oil.
Oil slick fire
An oil slick fire to vaporize some of the oil was tested Wednesday. “We burned 100 barrels of oil in 45 minutes” said Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer, in a conference call Thursday with reporters. “The technique clearly worked, so it puts another tool in the tool chest, but it can only be applied when the weather is good, and we can only burn between 500 and 1,000 barrels at a time.” Choppy seas forecast through the weekend will prevent using fire booms — fire resistant materials used to contain the oil — for oil slick fires. Fire booms are used because the oil slick has to be at least 3 millimeters thick in order to ignite, The New York Times reports. The spill is only about 1 or 2 millimeters thick without the booms.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill could get much worse
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill 2010 could dwarf the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. The Press-Register in Mobile, Ala., reports that the loss of the wellhead that is restricting the flow of gushing oil could release up to 150,000 barrels — 6 million gallons — a day into the gulf. That estimate was based on production of other deep water oil platforms in the gulf. The Exxon Valdez oil spill totaled 11 million gallons. With the loss of the wellhead, the Gulf spill could end up dumping the equivalent of four Exxon Valdez spills a week. Efforts to completely plug or contain the leaking well are expected to take several months. No information is currently available about whether or not stopping the flow is even possible with the loss of the wellhead.
More bad news for oil spill cleanup
Other problems bode greater disaster for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill 2010. Cleanup officials have determined that the crumpled 5,000 foot long pipe, called the riser, that connected the wellhead to the drilling platform that sank, is the only thing restricting the flow. Oil gushing through the riser is full of sand. The abrasive slurry is under high pressure, effectively sandblasting the walls of the pipe. Officials theorize that this sandblasting caused an additional leak in the riser that increased the estimated flow five fold.
Scramble to hold back oil slick
To hold back the oil spill from the gulf coast, The New York Times reports that about 40,000 feet of boom had been placed around Pass-a-Loutre, the area of the Mississippi River Delta where the oil was expected to touch first. The New York Times also reported that the Navy provided 50 contractors, seven skimming systems and 66,000 feet of inflatable containment boom. About 210,000 feet of boom had been laid down to protect the shoreline in several places along the Gulf Coast, though experts said that marshlands presented a far more daunting cleaning challenge than sandy beaches.
they are stupid they should be more worried about the animals they do not even really care about the animals i
bet they would care if it was them they should put themselves in the animal's position and see how they feel
they should burn the oil so it will be consumed !! and go sink down the sea
they made this oil spill so mexico cant catch fishes and starve to death in that way mexico will join america …will become meximerica and after that they go next for canada …maybe burn it all up ,farms ,homes,trees so canada would starve to death and join america and will become meximericanada W00t
Very true
2012 is right around the corner the oil spill just gave the earth a way to burn.
hey dudes this is soooooooo boring who cares bout the oil spill (NOT ME)
how could you not care about the @#$%ing ocean? what is wrong with you?
BP SUCKS THE ARE STUPID
I AGREEE THEY R STUPID I COULD DO BETTER JOB THAN THOSE BOOBS
we do not need this source of power , with all the alternatives available tenic, advances etc, industry ,transport, lighting,etc.
with what its cost thus far, and ongoing. in monetry, stress,upheavel, habitat loss, anger, heartache,despair,destruction. we could have invested in energy for the etertnity of time, yes we all consume, where are our altenatives ?,few and all very costly and for most and out of reach , thanks to gov ledgistation,who are on the get rich bandwagon too!. rakeing in their taxes, instead of subsideing and distrubtion, to meet the worlds needs by alternatives , thus trickling down to the consumer, eventualy. who in their right mind assumes its ok to bleed the earths arteries, eventualy when all is depleated we have a very sick patient on our hands! ,,THEN… alternatives.. is the only option anyway, but drill baby drill, get rich, dont care, im ok, sod tomrow, and further genrations numbskulls, who run and missmanage things affecting the very pulse of life on earth are so aloof from reality,so blind ,so greedy, so self opoinated,so dictorial,selfish, cunning,secretive, unpriortizing,unreal, i cant clasify them as human in any way.who needs bombs! who needs to go to the moon!, well actualy they do.
PROGRESS? DISASTER DESPAIR DESTRUCTION!IS SURLY THE UNDISPUTABLE RESULT.
DONT WE HAVE ENOUGH NATURAL DISASTERS TO CONTEND WITH AS IT IS?lets sort out that.
I blame BT
Perhaps they'll build the starships to get us off this rock (or what will eventually become a "rock")
Who cares about the enviroment. At least we can eat some good ol' fried chicken.
mmmm, fried chicken… but wait, it isn't coated in petrol, is it?
Sarah Palin says "Drill baby drill"
Let's stick old Sarah's a**in the pipe & plug it up.
Sarah probably has no concern with the environment as she lies on her dead bear rugs & believes she's ruler of the universe.
BP sucks !!!!!!!!
This is so sad. Humans wake up……we don't need to be such consumers. Planet Earth needs to be protected. No more oil. There is a emergency to stop this oil or Earth & everything will suffer.
ok bp does not suck they have done everything that they can do to help it. They have even plugged the oil spill now its the clean up work that they have to do .
Kevin Costner is going to save the world!!!!!!!!!!
He is already in New Orleans & donating $26 mil of his own money.
His brother a scientist has a machine that separates oil from water very quickly. Kevin Costner is a hero. I hope some more celebrities support his efforts.
I've warned you many times. They should have created a insurance for this type of coverage
Dont do drugs
Clear, inrfoamitve, simple. Could I send you some e-hugs?
Can someone tell me why they tried to put the raging fire out? I think they should not of made the effort to put the fire out and let the fire help aid in the burning out the leak! I hope someone can prove me wrong because if they can't then we have made a huge mistake!
JR
Hi Americans,
It's a disaster ! I just hope that all the country's of the world send all their specialists and cleaning ships to help. The Americans helped us; now it's our turn ! Good Luck !
Don't talk about the guilty one's; we are all guilty because we just use toooooooo much oil (and other fuels). The world has to pay !
Pim van Santen
The Netherlands
Very true, Pim. We're all guilty of being overly dependent upon fossil fuels. If Rush Limbaugh actually said what's being attributed to him re. the spill, then I'd love to see a school of fish or flock of seagulls enter his home, dump oil everywhere and see if it's all still "just fine" with him afterward.
No, I totally dissagree. Our morals and ethics makes us feel bad what humans do to the enviroment. We have a short life, dont worry about what we do.
Does anyone Live down here? I want to know where to sign up to go clean off all the animals.
The cleaning up of this mess will be more difficult. On one hand we are always winging about global warming look now what we have done.
It seems that this problem is going out of control. Now the cleaning of the oil will be the biggest challenge. Lets hope for the best.
i am appuled.people wanna be that irresponsibble and dont even care whats happening to our land.think of all of the creatures in that water think of how many spices of animal will be dead if this doesnt get cleaned up in time.i think people need to be more responsible and watch what there doing this will effect the atmosphere and the ozone.whats next.were the only living things on this planet.thats not what it looks like now but it will soon if we keep treatin the earth like we dont care
that suks
its worser than suck
oh my goodness that's so bad. what about the poor animals who will be undeniably killed by this accident?? this is absolutely terrible; clean up is not working! this will be so bad for the animals and the environment!! our world is getting tortured by human action.