Even with BP’s “success” with the oil leak in the gulf of Mexico over the weekend, the leak continues to spew crude to the Gulf. After 3 weeks of the oil continuously spilling to the ocean, scientists feel like there is probably much a lot more oil than is just being seen on the surface. What’s a lot more, these deep, undersea plumes of oil are approaching a current that could carry the oil spill to the Florida Keys and beyond.
BP oil spill response is a little too late maybe?
The BP oil spill response has had numerous failed attempts. Monday the BP oil spill response team announced that company engineers had inserted a metal tube into the end of the broken pipe that is allowing some of the oil that was spilled to be siphoned to a surface ship. As outlined by Voice of The United States, BP Vice President Kent Wells says the method will reduce the amount of oil spewing to the water. Next they’ll try to pump mud and other materials to the sea floor to block the well.
Gulf coast oil spill – 30 million gallons and counting
The oil spill within the Gulf of Mexico 2010 has already dumped nearly 5.67 million gallons into the sea, depending on BP and U.S. Coast Guard estimates – which appears to be an easy payday loan compared to the cleanup costs that would required for other estimates. As reported at skytruth.org, Dr. Ian MacDonald from Florida State University produced an estimate based on the U.S. Coast Guard aerial over flight map of the oil slick on April 28 that suggests a minimum flow rate of slightly a lot more than 1.1 million gallons of oil (26,500 barrels) per day. We’re now in Day 27 of the spill, which began with a blowout and explosion on April 20, so as outlined by those estimates more than 30 million gallons may are spilled to the Gulf of Mexico. Some scientists estimate the spill at 3.4 million gallons a day.
The Gulf Coast oil spill with undersea plumes
With the official estimates of the Exxon Valdez spill at 11 million gallons a day, the BP oil leak makes it look like nothing. Although the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has yet to reach the shoreline for one of the most part, the New York Times reports that scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in deeper waters, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick. The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf. Scientists anticipate that oxygen levels will fall enough to kill off most undersea life near the plumes.
Drift to Florida Keys by the oil spill
The oil spill within the Gulf of Mexico 2010 is drawing closer to the Loop Current. Reuters reports that scientists say once the BP oil leak is really within the loop, it could reach the Florida Keys in 10 days. This specific look is a ribbon of warm water that starts within the Gulf of Mexico and courses around Florida. There are scientists that think the current will draw the oil slick through the keys and then north up Florida’s Atlantic Coast. They said the oil might miss the beaches of Miami and Fort Lauderdale but could wash up around Palm Beach.
Gulf coast oil spill hurts much tropical marine life
On the course to defile the third longest barrier reef within the world, the 221 mile long Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the oil spill may lead to millions of tourist dollars leaving Florida’s floundering economy. The toxic oil slick can smother the corals, causing a chain reaction of carnage among thousands of species of exotic marine life that live in and around reefs.
Resources for the article
skytruth.org
http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-new-spill-rate.html
New York Times reports
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/us/16oil.html
Reuters reports
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/market_news/article.jsp?content=D9FORQS01
