The BP oil spill is still getting many oil into the Gulf of Mexico, even after BP’s “success” over the weekend. Numerous scientists think there is much a lot more oil on the spill than is being seen on the surface after 3 weeks of continually spilling. These deep plumes of oil are getting near a current that might carry the spill to Florida Keys and beyond.
Little too late for BP oil response?
The BP oil spill response has integrated a number of failed attempts to date. 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. BP Vice President Kent Wells says the method will reduce the amount of oil spewing to the water, as outlined by Voice of America. The next step is to make an effort to pump mud and other materials to the sea floor and block the well.
30 million gallons and counting: The Gulf coast oil spill
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 2010 has already dumped nearly 5.67 million gallons to the sea, based on BP and U.S. Coast Guard estimates — an easy payday loan compared to the cleanup costs that may be required for other estimates. As reported at skytruth.org, Dr. Ian MacDonald at Florida State University produced an estimate depending on the U.S. Coast Guard aerial over flight map of the oil slick on April 28 that suggests a minimum average flow rate of slightly 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 an explosion on April 20, so as outlined by those estimates, there have been a lot more than 30 million gallons spilled to the Gulf of Mexico. There are some scientists that suggest the spill is leaking 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 within the Gulf of Mexico has yet to reach the shoreline in most areas, the New York Times reports that scientists are finding oil plumes in deeper waters, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick. Unfortunately, the huge plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved to the gulf. Scientists believe that most undersea life near the plumes can be killed as a result of low oxygen levels.
This oil spill might go to Florida Keys
The Gulf of Mexico 2010 oil spill is getting closer and closer to the Loop Current. Reuters reports that scientists say once the BP oil leak is within the loop, it could reach the Florida Keys in 10 days. The loop current is a ribbon of warm water that begins in the Gulf of Mexico and courses around Florida. Some scientists project the current will draw the oil slick through the Keys and then north up Florida’s Atlantic Coast. They think the spill could miss Miami and Fort Lauderdale but wash up around Palm Beach.
Gulf coast oil spill endangers tropical marine life
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 2010 could possibly be on course to defile the third-longest barrier reef in the world, the 221-mile-long Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which draws millions of tourist dollars to Florida’s floundering economy. The toxic oil slick can smother the corals, causing a chain response of carnage among thousands of species of exotic marine life that live in and around reefs.
Sources
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
