The "oil spill maps" are weird.

[howard112211]

Here's the one from the "Office of Response and Restoration"

Oil Spill Map

And here the "NY Times Oil Spill Tracker" (look specifically for the latest date, which is May 13).

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

Both of these maps show a huge blob of oil in the middle. The upper link shows to little red dots where "oil has possibly beached", far to the west and somewhat to the north of the blob. The lower map shows little grey blobs all along the beach, also quite far from the center blob.

These patterns look completely weird. Why are these small blobs appearing only in coastal areas, if the main blob is such a closed mass that appears to be rather strongly localized? Shouldn't there either be small blobs all over the place, or just one huge mass that covers a large area?

I am guessing that the small blobs only appear on the coast, either because those are the only areas in which they have been discovered, and many more of them are all over the place, or because the small blobs are just the edges of a mass that is much largen than what is shown on those maps.

edit: fixed link

[Lochloosa]

1. The Gulf has some strange currents. I grew up fishing in it.

Also, wind would play a big part. Some areas of the Gulf will have strong winds and other areas will be dead calm.

IMHO.