In a sick way, the Gulf Oil Spill will be a defining moment in physical and biological oceanography [View All]

[jpak]

Most folks may not realize that much of what we know about ocean circulation was the result of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and the mass production of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons. As these nasties dissolved in the ocean from the atmosphere, they left a trail of bread crumbs that oceanographers began to follow...

Tracers in the sea : W. S. Broecker and T. H. Peng. Eldigio Press Lamont Doherty Geological Observatory, 1982, 690 pages

and many others...

Satellite imagery of the progression of the current spill will produce updated models of surface ocean circulation in the GOM and elsewhere!



Documentation of the subsurface plumes of methane, sulfide and micron-scale micelle petroleum emulsion -however spotty and incomplete (due to lack of funding !!!!!!11111) - will provide biological oceanographers with new insight how the new and dissolved-oxygen-depleted-multicellular-eukaryote-free central Gulf of Mexico ecosystem operates!

Sorry if I can't post more, my yacht is racing today!

Thank you SOOOoooooo much BP, for your contribution to ocean science...

Please sir, can we have some more?

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