If the BP Dome Got Plugged up with 'methane crystals' why do we have to plug it with junk?

[ShamelessHussy]

I thought they wanted to plug it?

[Webster Green]

1. The formations made the structure buoyant. (n/t)

[ShamelessHussy]

2. anchor it

and make it smaller maybe.

[itsrobert]

3. At a mile down

With oil rushing into it? I don't think it would be able to hold off all that build up pressure.

[ShamelessHussy]

4. yeah, they were able to drill that deep, drill some deep nails

leave the top open... until the rig it is secured to the bottom... then put the top on with hydraulics.

[AllentownJake]

5. They have no fucking clue how to stop it

They are going to end up nuking it like the Russians suggested eventually.

[BeFree]

6. Nah

All they need to do is crimp the pipe.

It is crimped now, they say, and that is why it isn't a complete gusher. Just crimp the damned thing some more.

The robot just needs a strong enough arm to squeeze the pipe closed. Just like you would do with a garden hose.

[piedmont]

7. The dome is not pressure-tight. It's supposed to work like a big vacuum nozzle.

The dome is supposed to suck up oil after it comes out of the broken pipe. If crystals clog up the dome, you lose suction and the oil just spills out and floats upward.
The thing they're talking about clogging with junk is the blowout preventer, just above where the pipe emerges from the sea floor.

[ShamelessHussy]

9. even slowing it down would better than what we have today

:shrug:

[piedmont]

14. It wouldn't slow it down. Take a funnel and pour oil into it. Then clog up the funnel...

and keep pouring oil into it. The oil will just spill over the side of the funnel and the clog will not slow down what comes out of the bottle.

[jobycom]

8. Different type of clog.

The "dome" is a big outhouse with an inverted funnel on top, attached to a hose. The outhouse just sits over the pipe and lets the oil rush into it, and the hose sucks the oil out of the top. There's nothing to stop the oil from gushing out around the bottom of the outhouse except the hose pumping the oil out of the top faster than it can spill out of the outhouse bottom.

The ice crystals down there make the water like a giant slushie, so as the hose tried to suck the oil out, the ice got sucked in and clogged the hose, so no oil can come out the top, so it just flows out the bottom, making the whole structure useless.

The pipe itself doesn't freeze over first because the oil doesn't freeze, second because the pressure is pushing outward from a narrow opening into a wider one (the Gulf). The outhouse is the reverse--a wider opening (the entire outhouse) pushing out through a narrower hose. Thus, the latter clogs, the former doesn't.

It's almost exactly like a chocolate shake. You try to suck through the straw, and the shake is too thick when it's cold, so the straw just clogs. So how do you clear the straw? You blow through it, pushing the ice back into the wider cup. The oil is blowing through the straw of the pipe, but it's too thick to be sucked through the straw of the hose.

[ShamelessHussy]

10. at this point, any clog will do

[jobycom]

11. Yes, but not any clog will form.

That's the problem, there's no way to clog the leak the way the outhouse was clogged.

[ShamelessHussy]

12. The clogged that formed on the 'outhouse', would do

Build a smaller dome, anchor it, clog it.

[jobycom]

13. They can't.

It wouldn't seal. There's no way to seal the outhouse to the ocean floor at that depth. The oil would keep leaking at the same rate, spraying out through the sand or sediment once the outhouse filled. The clog is only at the top of the outhouse.

[ShamelessHussy]

15. you can say that again!

:shakes-head:

[AnArmyVeteran]

16. If they have no way to fix leaks at 5k ft, they should NOT drill 5k deep! STUPID IDIOTS!!!!!

[AnArmyVeteran]

17. Hell, Roto-Rooter could probably clog that pipe! BP EXECS SHOULD GO TO PRISON!