NYTimes: "Scientists Find Giant Plumes of Oil Forming Under the Gulf"

[KansasVoter]

More bad news........

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.

“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather details about what is happening in the gulf. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column.”

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.

Dr. Joye said the oxygen had already dropped 30 percent near some of the plumes in the month that the broken oil well had been flowing. “If you keep those kinds of rates up, you could draw the oxygen down to very low levels that are dangerous to animals in a couple of months,” she said Saturday. “That is alarming.”

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.

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

[BrklynLiberal]

1. The consequences of this oil spill will be bigger than anyone can possibly comprehend,

and certainly bigger than anyone will admit.

[fishwax]

2. the picture keeps getting worse

and it seemed plenty bad when we first heard of it :nuke:

[boppers]

3. NONONONONO

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

:argh:

[Oregone]

4. Easy man

This world has outlived its usefulness in the grand scheme of the universe. Its not so much the fault of the salmon and dolphin...only to the extent that they didn't murder man prior to his early emergence from the sea. But as far as the universe is concerned, this is a tiny disaster on a tiny inconsequential planet, that if thrived any longer, could of spread across space like a virus.

Seriously. There is huge upside to man going extinct prior to figuring out how to colonize other planets.

[boppers]

5. Currently we're the only species actively working to preserve the planet.

Unfortunately, we're also one of the most destructive ones.

I guess we at least have an answer now on why all the numbers were so vastly different: Subsurface measurements vs. surface measurements.

[Oregone]

6. True, unless you measure the aggregate effect of all of man

Damn...even some of this "green" movement requires a fair share of production to enable (which requires mining for rare materials and consumption of limited resources).

But yeah...good point. Well fuck those manatees for just lounging around and not doing a damn thing. Fine...I have no pity for any of them anymore

[boppers]

7. LOL@ the lazy manatees.

Well, you were blaming dolphins for not killing us off earlier, so, there ya go.

[Kablooie]

8. Oil in the ocean is natural. They have to prove that any of this was caused by man.

This was a comment over on the Free Republic.

Deep thinkers over there, eh?

[jeanpalmer]

9. Thank God for the university scientists

who are documenting the destruction taking place and are keeping us informed. We're never going to find out from the oil companies and politicians who are obfuscating and covering their tracks.