The oil is "evaporating" underwater. Seriously??

[Lesleymo]

Here's one of the top stories on Yahoo News this morning. Somebody explain to me, please, how (1) oil can evaporate and (2) how ANYTHING could evaporate underwater. Plus, of course, according to the story much of the oil "would be dispersed in the ocean." Well that makes me feel better. Go on home now, nothing to see here, everything's fine.



Where's The Oil? Much Has Evaporated, Underwater.

NEW ORLEANS – For a spill now nearly half the size of Exxon Valdez, it's hard to pin down where the oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster has gone.

Although the government has been slow to say what's happened to it, a picture can be drawn from a publicly available model called the Automated Data Inquiry for Oil Spills.

The model shows that about 35 percent of a hypothetical 4.8 million gallon spill of light Louisiana crude oil released in conditions similar to those found in the Gulf now would evaporate.

It also shows that between 50 percent and 60 percent of the oil would remain in or on the water and the rest would be dispersed in the ocean.

Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University chemist analyzing the spill, says he thinks most of the oil is floating within 1 foot of the surface.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100514/ap_on_re_us/us_gulf_spill_where_s_the_oil

[piratefish08]

1. oh. cool. Problem solved!

and all you guys were so worried!

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. Here's another view:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8331716

[JCMach1]

3. Third possibility is that is still there, but we won't have the dramatic

animal kills that are a hallmark of an enclosed spill like Exxon Valdez. Instead, the oil balls will roll onto beaches and into marshes for generations and the damage will add to to the slow motion destruction already ongoing in the Gulf.

It will be like the beaches here in the UAE. Oil tankers often illegally flush their tanks outside of the Straits of Hormuz leading to a constant build-up of oil on the UAE east coast. Go for a walk on the beach there and the oil puts a sticky almost impossible to get off coat on your feet or whatever it touches. Of course, it does the same to coral and other animals.

However, because this happens far out to sea, the damage is a slow-motion disaster... but one that will last for many years.

[Javaman]

5. Oh we still will...

one quart of oil can contaminated 160,000 gallons of water.

They can say it's gone, but it's still very much there.

It doesn't "evaporate".

Oh by the way, catchup it a vegetable, too. LOL oh those repukes, they try so hard.

[Blues Heron]

4. evaporating OR underwater is my read n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I agree - it's that dodgy American headline style of English

"35 percent ... would evaporate"
" between 50 percent and 60 percent of the oil would remain in or on the water"
"the rest would be dispersed in the ocean"

The models says:

ADIOS uses mathematical equations and information from the database to predict changes over time in the density, viscosity, and water content of an oil or product, the rates at which it evaporates from the sea surface and disperses into the water, and the rate at which an oil-in-water emulsion may form.

NOAA

[Lesleymo]

13. Oh - duh! I guess the comma makes the difference.

Still. Does oil evaporate?? Not that it matters in the overall picture of this catastrophe. I'm sure even if a whole bunch evaporated and a whole bunch more "dispersed" it will still devastate the Gulf coast communities.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Yes, some of it evaporates, but not all of it will

and the model is trying to work out how much will. Remember, crude oil is a mixture of various hydrocarbons, including light ones like gasoline, and we know that evaporates easily. How easy it is for fractions of it to evaporate I'm not sure, but the journey up from the high pressure at the sea floor to the surface may encourage the fractions to separate, perhaps. What's left is certainly devastating, but I suppose estimates of what has to be dealt with need to take into account of what will evaporate on its own.

[CanonRay]

6. Thom Hartman says BP is dumping chemicals on the spill

at the origin, causing the oil to break into microscopic bits that are harder to see (but still oil, and still doing environmental damage).

[backscatter712]

8. Some (but not all parts of oil) can evaporate, into air.

Petroleum is a mix of bunches of different types of hydrocarbons.

Some of them are the lighter hydrocarbons - hexane, septane, octane (those are mixed together and known as "gasoline") - leave them in a bucket in the open air and they will evaporate.

And since oil floats on top of the water, that's what happens.

Doesn't make it healthy though.

And there are lots of heavier hydrocarbons - oils, tars & such that will do nothing but glom on everything they touch. They won't evaporate.

[florida08]

9. I don't think so

The only way it could evaporate is if it were set on fire..that failed so they went to dispersant.
I'm sure this is a conservative estimate but it says 4.8 million gals have poured so far. The Valdez was 10.9

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/01/us/20100501-oil-spill-tracker.html

[HughMoran]

10. No, some EVAPORATES and some is UNDERWATER

The headline is deceiving if read the way you suggest :)

[florida08]

11. info

Oil that contains volatile organic compounds partially evaporates, losing between 20 and 40 percent of its mass and becoming denser and more viscous (i.e., more resistant to flow). A small percentage of oil may dissolve in the water. The oil residue also can disperse almost invisibly in the water or form a thick mousse with the water. Part of the oil waste may sink with suspended particulate matter, and the remainder eventually congeals into sticky tar balls.

http://tinyurl.com/24uuywd

This oil is 25000 ft deep. It is not organic. Organic material stops at around 18000 ft

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. In chemistry, 'organic' means 'compounds of carbon'

(see meaning 3b: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/organic), and the origin of crude oil is from dead organisms anyway. Also, organic material does not 'stop' at any particular depth; dead organisms can sink, and live organisms at the bottom of deep oceans can feed on that, or on chemical vents in the sea floor, for that matter.

[LiberalArkie]

12. Since the kosmic karma machine has really been rolling the last couple of years,

and since the politicians of Mississippi, Alabama etc have not had any worries about the oil leak. I am betting that the oil is below the surface. All balled up from the coldness of 5000 feet. I am also betting that a hurricane will come along and wipe it up to a nice broth, with nice solids and send it on shore a couple of hundred miles. I wonder how the the 'Good-Ol-Boys' will enjoy the rain.

BTW kosmic karma - "what goes around, come around"

[greencharlie]

15. makes perfect sense to me... nt

:sarcasm:

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Seriously. They're seriously serious about the serious seriousness.

Or something ....... seriously.

[phleshdef]

18. Maybe it did evaporate, which is great, now when it rains, everybody gets some free oil.