Monstrous underwater oil plumes, one 10 miles long and a mile wide, found in the Gulf

[G_j]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8685368.stm

Monstrous underwater oil plumes found in US Gulf Coast

The spill is poised to be the worst environmental disaster in US history

Scientists have found vast underwater plumes of oil, one 10 miles (16km) long and a mile wide, in the Gulf of Mexico, following last month's rig disaster.

A Georgia University expert warned oxygen levels had fallen 30% in some areas of the sea, and it could take decades to repair the damage.

BP is still trying to insert a tube into the gushing well to siphon the crude to a ship on the surface.

The US government has demanded BP make clear its commitment to pay damages.

Researchers from the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology say they have detected several sprawling oil slicks lurking just beneath the surface of the sea and at depths of 4,000ft (1,200m).

Dead zones

The find suggests the scale of the potential environmental disaster is much worse than previously feared since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig blew up on 20 April, killing 11 workers.

..more..

[marylanddem]

1. Obama needs to send in the Navy

to permanently shut down the well if humanly possible...
BP has too much control over this situation & its "solution" - seems to be playing games with keeping it open & "siphoning"

And thank you for posting this - I have already posted my opinion but believe this is absolutely the most important story of our day - must be kept front & center.

[marylanddem]

3. deleted by poster

[TheWraith]

14. You have NO idea what you're talking about.

First off, what the hell is the Navy going to do to the well? Shoot at it?

Secondly, they are not getting any usable oil out of this well. They COULD tap back into the pocket from another location, IF they manage to seal this hole, but right now they can't.

[bahrbearian]

25. Of course you know

after all the Navy only knows about the surface of the oceans, they know nothing about deep sea rescue or exploration, they don't have the ROV capabilities that BP has, I would only allow the Oil companies to fix this.

[TheWraith]

36. Do you think that they don't already have all the DSVs they can use on site?

Do you think that the Coast Guard isn't involved? That the Navy isn't offering them any resources they need?

[Captain_Blue]

33. Navy

If shooting at it were a possibility, I would support it. I have followed this from day 1, as obama is fond of saying, and it appears to me that the mission is to make this hole a producing oil well. Who knows what could have been done to plug the hole? I suspect that keeping the oil flowing is a critical part of BP's plan to get a return on investment, and thus explaining Obama's almost stoic posture. He wants a good oil well out of this. Sick and we have been betrayed. History will tell the story and it is not going to be nice.

[TheWraith]

37. Again, you have NO CLUE what you're talking about.

The oil flowing out into the gulf is gone. Period. Mixed with seawater it's effectively useless. If they plug this well, they can drill a new one at a different location to get into this pocket, but there is NO profit in letting the well continue to bleed. But hey, thanks for making the President a part of your conspiracy theory.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. And that's the status quo for today.

It will only get longer and wider.

[marylanddem]

4. I really fear this is going to be much worse than we can imagine

Unless someone or something takes control of BP's "control" of that gusher.

[bighart]

32. It's already worse than we know.

And it's already too late to fix the damage that has been done. This whole thing has been mismanaged from the beginning. It's like watching the Keystone Cops deal with an industrial/environmental disaster.

[James48]

5. Just wait till it washes up on Key West

The entire coast of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and parts of Texas are about to be fouled for years.

It's lurking underwater. Will be for years.

[ThomWV]

8. A place who's own natural coast and eco system disappeared completely sometime around 1927

[csziggy]

26. The coast of Florida from east of Alligator Point to Cedar Key is nearly undisturbed

Start here: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=st.%20marks%20national%20wildlife%20refuge&rlz=1B3GGLL_enUS375US375&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
And follow the coast east and southeast.

Then go to Marco Island, Florida and follow that coast.

With miles and miles of coastal vegetation those areas are a nursery for many of the Gulf species: birds, fish, manatee, shellfish, crab and so many more. Those areas and similar parts of the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are the parts of the coast I will mourn. The pretty beaches are OK, but those overgrown coastal swamps are what have fed the denizens of the Gulf and nurtured their young.

Two weeks ago I drove down to St. Marks to see the coast. I need to do that again as soon as possible.

[Karmadillo]

6. Can someone send a wake up call to the White House?

nt

[marylanddem]

9. Indeed.

BP CANNOT be in charge of this situation anymore.

[ThomWV]

7. doesn't (crude) oil float?

[TheWraith]

15. Under most circumstances, yes.

However, for one thing crude oil is heavier than most oils, so it would rise slower. Second, it's coming out from tremendous depth, so the path and behavior of it slowly rising is going to be somewhat unpredictable. It won't just boil straight up from the hole.

[csziggy]

27. And of course we have no idea what the chemicals mixed with the oil

Has done to the properties of the oil and whatever compounds have resulted from the mixing.

[Kablooie]

23. Yes, but how fast does it rise? It has to travel up a full mile to reach the surface.

Not to mention currents that may shuttle it sideways as well.

[ensho]

10. this article says it is 3 miles wide and 300 ft. deep in some areas, + more

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/us/16oil.html?hp


Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.

-snip-

The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.

-snip-

The plumes were discovered by scientists from several universities working aboard the research vessel Pelican, which sailed from Cocodrie, La., on May 3 and has gathered extensive samples and information about the disaster in the gulf.

-snip-

BP has resisted entreaties from scientists that they be allowed to use sophisticated instruments at the ocean floor that would give a far more accurate picture of how much oil is really gushing from the well.

-long very interesting snip-
------------------------------------------

[G_j]

11. if it was up to BP

we would not be hearing about this.

[suffragette]

12. And the underwater plumes are in multiple layers - 3-5 layers deep

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7127904.ece
The plume is one of a number that scientists have found gushing into the sea a mile underwater, increasing concerns that the size of the spill could be thousands of times larger than has been previously calculated, according to The New York Times.

“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, from the University of Georgia, who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather information from the spill. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column,” Dr Joye told the newspaper.

After studying footage of the gushing oil scientists on board the research vessel Pelican, which is gathering samples and information about the spill, said that it could be flowing at a rate of 25,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil a day, or 3.4 million gallons a day. The flow rate is currently calculated at 5,000 barrels a day.


Was looking for more info on this so I plugged Dr. Joye's name into Google and stumbled upon a good database to bookmark.
Along with info on people who have been engaged in research at the Gulf, the website has maps of bays, islands, estuaries and scholarly articles on the area.
http://www.gulfbase.org/

[G_j]

16. so very disturbing

thanks for the link

[suffragette]

22. Skytruth put up a new photo of the oil slick on the surface yesterday

and noted how larger it looks as well as spotting what may be a separate leak from a different rig.

They've been pretty accurate so far.
http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/05/bp-gulf-oil-spill-slick-getting-bigger.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Skytruth+%28SkyTruth%29

The COSMO-SkyMed radar image taken yesterday is somewhat ominous - it shows nearly all of the slick from the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and at 4,922 square miles (12,748 km2) it's significantly larger than it appeared on May 13:

And we think we've discovered an unrelated leak from a nearby platform that was installed back in 1984. The MMS ID# for this platform is 23051 (look it up here). A small, dark slick appears next to this platform on radar satellite images from April 26, May 8, and May 13 as well as this May 14 image.

It's not a major leak but it may indicate a chronic problem. Somebody should check that out to make sure it doesn't get any worse.





So now we have enormous oil slicks on and below the surface.

And a devil's brew of oil, gas and Corexit swirling who knows where.

Devastating, indeed.

[faceit]

13. Kick & Recommend - this should be at the top of the front page

[lonestarnot]

17. All the money in the world cannot clean this up. Once it's dead it's dead.

K & R.

[Rex]

18. Is it roaming? How fast does something like that move underwater?

What happens if a sub blunders into something like that? Can they detect it on sonar? Sorry if those are stupid questions.

[G_j]

21. they aren't stupid questions

we all would like to know a lot more!

[meow mix]

19. so the dispersants are just making sure the entire gulf gets saturated

making it mix easier, even between layers

[Duppers]

20. K & R

for the seriousness of this situation.

Obama's lack of action and attention to this is irresponsible, to say the least.

[amborin]

24. knr

[Angry Dragon]

28. In the fine words of Pickens

It is our oil and we deserve it......bp is just working to save the oil.....that is the most important thing.

What i would like is to see the execs of these companies lose all of their personal wealth, use it first to pay for the destruction they have caused. For when things are good they get paid so when things are bad they should pay. Sounds fair to me

[Odin2005]

29. BP execs shoukd be executed for crimes against the planet!

[rhett o rick]

30. There is a lot of blame to go around. Yes it is easy to blame the execs but they were pushing the

regulations. The government department that is supposed to monitor must share some blame and the goddamn politicians that sold us down the river and neutralized the regulations are the real culprits. We must also share some responsibility for not electing Congress-critters that actually represent us.

Having said that, I feel better. Now go execute the bastards. Of course give them a fair trial first, then execute them.

[Captain_Blue]

34. Crimes

Most crimes occur on the streets, people to people. High crimes involving Corporations against the people cannot occur with out Government Protection. BP could not have created this fatal destruction without the Goverment's protection. When this begins to play out to the obvious, it is going to be very bad, but don't expect justice served. Look for lots of costal use laws that prosecute local citizens for seeking food. BP is a government protected crime agency. The proof is in the corrupt manner in which permits were or were not issued and the simple fact that the cost of this will far exceed any ability or willingness to pay for it.

How much is the gulf worth? Any guesses? How about 6 Trillion Dollars over 30 years! Or how about 600 Trillion over 50 years? How much is it worth to me and you? How much is food and air worth?

[joe black]

31. Look

Even if they get the oil through the pipe to the surface are there enough boats to capture the oil or are they going to try and stick a valve on the end of the pipe in order to shut the flow off when needed.

[leveymg]

35. I can guarantee that these are floating dead zones. No fish, no marine mammals survive within.

Energy Corporations are killing the world, and nobody (in a responsible position) seemingly much cares to do anything about it.

Remove them all from power.