See inset view below.
On April 29, the MODIS image on the Terra satellite captured a wide-view natural-color image of the oil slick (outlined in white) just off the Louisiana coast. The oil slick appears as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent. Sunglint — the mirror-like reflection of the sun off the water — enhances the oil slick’s visibility. The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta. Credit: NASA/Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the University of Wisconsin’s Space Science and Engineering Center MODIS Direct Broadcast system.
NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites are helping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) keep tabs on the extent of the recent Gulf oil spill with satellite images from time to time. NOAA is the lead agency on oil spills and uses airplane fly-overs to assess oil spill extent.
A semisubmersible drilling platform called the Deepwater Horizon located about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta experienced a fire and explosion at approximately 11 p.m. CDT on April 20. Subsequently, oil began spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico and efforts to contain the spill continue today. NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellite imagery has captured the spill in between cloudy days.
NOAA used data from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument from the Terra satellite on April 26, 27 and 29 to capture the extent of the oil spill, which measured 600-square-miles. The MODIS instrument flies aboard both the Terra and Aqua satellites.
This satellite image from NASA’s Terra satellite on April 27 at 12:05 CDT shows the outline and extent of the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. The red dot represents the platform. The coasts of Mississippi and Alabama appear at the top of the image. Credit: NOAA/NASA
› Larger image In the satellite image from April 27 at 12:05 p.m. CDT the MODIS image showed that the oil slick was continuing to emanate from the spill location. Individual slicks lay just north of 29 degrees and zero minutes north, where they have been noted in the days before. Oil had spread further east and the edge of the slick passed 87 degrees and 30 minutes west compared to the MODIS image taken on April 26. The April 26 satellite image came from NASA’s Aqua satellite.
On April 29, the MODIS image on the Terra satellite captured a natural-color image of the oil slick just off the Louisiana coast. The oil slick appeared as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent. The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta.
Deepwater Horizon had more than120 crew aboard and contained an estimated to 17,000 barrels of oil (700,000 gallons) of number two fuel oil or marine diesel fuel.
Today, April 30, NOAA declared the Deepwater Horizon incident “a Spill of National Significance (SONS).” A SONS is defined as, “a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge” and allows greater federal involvement. NOAA’s estimated release rate of oil spilling into the Gulf is estimated at 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day based on surface observations and reports of a newly discovered leak in the damaged piping on the sea floor.
NOAA reported on April 29 that dispersants are still being aggressively applied to the oil spill and over 100,000 gallons have been applied. NOAA’s test burn late yesterday was successful and approximately 100 barrels of oil were burned in about 45 minutes. NOAA is flying planes over the area and using NASA satellite imagery from the Terra and Aqua satellites to monitor the spill.
“in the drilling industry there are safety precautions upon safety precautions, it is the most safety regulated industry bar none”
Maybe nuclear power.
My issue with the coverage of this has been the lack of mention of the 11 workers. When I’d first heard about it I didn’t even know about that tragedy. I’ve read several articles about the event who don’t even mention them once. Oil is essential to our economy, why aren’t these men (any women?) considered brave heroes who risked their lives to bring us oil? I understand that this will negatively affect our environment, and I don’t like seeing birds covered in oil or hear that turtles may die, but eleven humans beings died already!
The upcoming hurricane season is analogous to 2005. Should a cat 3 come slamming into the delta region, I wonder how the surge and wind effects would affect the residues?
We all know that it could not have a natural disaster just sitting around waiting to happen. Because we all know that this kind of thing has never happened in the past. We are absolutely sure that some human mistake was the primary cause of the problem. This is a good example of Murphy’s Law. No matter how many Fail Safe systems are put in place at sometime all the systems will fail. The only fail safe option that is guaranteed to work is to eliminate all life on the planet. Anything less would insure the possibility of someone or something being accidentally being harmed in the future.
STUFF HAPPENS! Learn from it and go on!
Jeff L says:
April 30, 2010 at 10:56 pm
I want to re-emphasize to all here questioning the safety equipment involved here. The media is leading you astray (not unlike they do with AGW). The equipment was INDUSTRY STANDARD. They had blow preventers & multiple redundant systems to activate. They were running regular safety tests & drills. They were not being cheapskates as one poster suggested. What they lacked is non-standard remotely operated device which could be used in a situation like this. Again, this is non-industry standard equipment. But of course, that is all the media has focused on, giving many the impression that BP must be negligent or cheapskates or whatever other negative connotation you want to drum up.
There also appears to be some confusion by some on the depth – the sea floor depth is at 5,000 ft (= water depth), but the hydrocarbons are coming from a reservoir at 18,000 ft (=13,000 ft below the sea floor)
—————————————————————————————
JEFF: At what depth does the cap have to be installed at…..5,000 Ft or 18,000 ft??
If these wells are supposed to have true fail-safe mechanisms that require a continuous application of hydraulic pressure or electric current from above to keep the flow open, then I think only a major explosion or design deficiency would cause them to fail to shut off the flow. Perhaps these sites should have the equivalent of aircraft ‘black-boxes’ to record all important local events and activities.
BTW, anyone remember the plot of the Roger Moore movie ‘ffolkes.’
The puzzling mystery is why all the redundant BOP systems collectively failed to shut off the oil flow. In an article published in the WSJ a few days ago, an “acoustic” activation system to trigger the BOP was not incorporated into this platform. Some countries mandate this, the US doesn’t. From what I gather, the BOP’s primary mechanism for operation is a signal sent to it from an operator in the platform itself. Was the operator killed in the initial explosion? Secondly, the BOP also has sensory capabilities that automatically trigger a shutdown if it senses that there is a major problem that needs attention. Lastly, the “acoustic” activation, when equipped, is a failsafe mechanism designed to trigger the shutdown with a sound transmission signal from the surface to the BOP.
The most alarming aspect of this disaster is that the BOP didn’t work. Will the inoperational BOP prevent a shut down or is there a mechanism that can override its primary function and effect a shutdown? We are at the mercy of the experts. As with all problems, an understanding of what is wrong is crucial to designing a solution that will work. The engineering experts can’t “see” what is happening down on the sea floor. They are blind.
We need to hear from “experts” on the basic engineering and techniques and illustrated in graphic form so panic and fearful decision making doesn’t rule themake a catastrophe far worse than it already is.
Maybe Lisa Simpson can move up from scrubbing rocks this time.
I would commend folks to get the Teaching Company Course “Critical Decision Making” it covers a number of things including the roles of complexity and backup being the enemy of robustness. Wait till it goes on sale.
For “Tom in Florida”
“Can someone of expertise explain the type of oil being released? Most everyone tends to think of “crude oil” as heavy, thick, tar like goop. Is this different from refined oil spills and how so?”
As far as I know no description of the oil has been released but just guessing it might be a 35 API oil (0.85 sg at surface conditions). Reservoir oils typically contain a wide range of hydrocarbons going from methane (C1) and Ethane (C2) and going to C20+. The hypothetical oil at reservoir conditions would contain gas in solution C1, C2 which upon flashing at the surface or somewhere in the flow stream, would automatically shrink the “stable” liquid phase. So upon arrival on the surface the C1 and C2 would have bubbled out of the oil and probably the Propane C3 and Butane C4. The resulting liquid at the surface, which would be called stock tank oil, would be stripped of Methane, Ethane, Propane and Butane but the C5 (Pentane) and higher would be left floating as a liquid. Depending on the surface temperature, air and water, the remaining lighter chains, C5, C6, C7, C8 would begin to evaporate. This is the range where natural gasoline would fall. Over time when lighter components are all gone you have a heavier, thicker residue. Eventually you get to a point where the remaining hydrocarbon chains left have an sg greater than 1 and sink to the bottom as tar balls. What happens on the surface is exactly what happens in a refinery in that hydrocarbon fractions are separated. Any unrefined oil contains a wide range of hydrocarbons whose composition is not equally distributed. Also, what we are seeing at the surface might also be emulsified with water to a degree.
Eventually the bugs will eat it all up.
Obama did oil slick —
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/223908
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/orig-m01.shtml
“Obama buckled under BP + oil industry pressure, failed to implement new safety and environmental regulations . . .
to block the inclusion on all oil rigs of a device called an acoustic switch—commonly used in other oil-producing nations—that sends impulses through the water that can trigger an underwater valve to shut down the well in the event of a blowback. BP found the costs of these units, about $500,000, excessive.”
Who advised obama on this?
How many billions environmental damage
and INDUSTRIAL (and this oil will damage cargo ships)damage will this cause?
Of course obama is the only one to blame–
the businesses that own and bribed obama
and his advisers are not
to blame–
they simply are doing business as usual in USA–
–that sucker is still bubbling 5000 barrels a day into the gulf–
If you want to make a buck or two –get yourself an old oil truck and cruise down to the Gulf coast and vacuum up
some oily water–
even at 20 percent oil a 20 barrel truckload
of seawater oil mix (can be separated at certain facilities)–
is worth 300 dollars.
GSBono says:
May 1, 2010 at 6:43 am
“Eventually the bugs will eat it all up.”
You offered a long good description. I just cite your last line.
Will the bugs really eat the most toxic PAH’s also, in the tar etc? And
if they will, it will get into the food chains. Better if they don’t, but then
we would have polluted sediments to some extent.
melinspain says:
May 1, 2010 at 5:42 am
AlanG says:
April 30, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Oil is organic. It’s biodegradable; a natural product that contains no artificial preservatives, flavors or colors. What’s the problem here? You would think the environments would love it!
Doug in Seattle says:
April 30, 2010 at 11:43 pm
I suspect phytoplankton in the gulf are having a feeding frenzy about now
Mr Black says:
May 1, 2010 at 12:01 am
It really bothers me the way folks get so upset about what is a minor leak of a single well. …..
Oil has been leaking out of the ground naturally for tens of thousands of years at least, nature can handle it and nature recovers.
I can only say that oil has has been leaking probably for hundreds of million years..
____________________________________________________________________
How true looks like Anthony’s article on Who says asphalt isn’t natural?
Posted on April 26, 2010 was very timely: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/26/who-says-asphalt-isnt-natural/
Some how if “man” touches something it instantly becomes “evil” yet if it is “natural” it is good even if it will kill you.
That’s why the US government has started suppressing wild animal attacks when it became fashionable to start releasing them. Prior to the releases attacks were down to one every several years. see: List of Confirmed Cougar Attacks In the United States and Canada 1890 – 1990 http://www.cougarinfo.org/attacks.htm
Injury Attacks in the United States and Canada have been as follows:
1970’s 17 total attacks found including 4 fatalities (2 injurred in one attack)
1980’s 18 total attacks found including 2 fatalities
1990’s 43 total attacks found including 8 fatalities
2000’s 36 1confirmed attacks to date including 3 fatalities found by my research (07/09/2009)
[Foot note #]1 Recently, my contacts with many others in many states and provinces indicates that wildlife officials and others are under pressure to minimize cougar sightings and even cover up their aggression toward humans….” http://www.cougarinfo.org/stats.html
This is how Mother Gaia will show nothing happends. She is a denialist too. Hope BP change drilling fields to Al Baby´s house shore front.
Seriously, this oil field shows that Non Fossil Fuels fields keep on being found and only “Green policies” work to increase its price artificially. There were two big findings recently, one at the gulf and the other in fron of Rio de Janeiro (Petrobras). Considering these gigantic findings oild should be at a price of $20 per barrel, so the only way to keep it high is to enforce regulatory laws all over the world.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
AlanG says:
April 30, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Oil is organic. It’s biodegradable; a natural product that contains no artificial preservatives, flavors or colors. What’s the problem here? You would think the environments would love it!
I do agree. All the rest is hysteria.
melinspain says:
May 1, 2010 at 5:42 am
Mr Black says:
May 1, 2010 at 12:01 am
It really bothers me the way folks get so upset about what is a minor leak of a single well. …..
Oil has been leaking out of the ground naturally for tens of thousands of years at least, nature can handle it and nature recovers.
I can only say that oil has has been leaking probably for hundreds of million years..
——-
Is the above skepticism or just utter thoughtlessness?
– 11 dead
– fisheries and livelihoods in danger
– biodiversity effects
– huge direct damage costs
– in a rationale calculus these external costs become
negatives on the balance sheet of fossil energy (remember also the
Chinesse tanker and the Great Barrier Reef).
So far, the biggest oil spill came compliments of PEMEX with Ixtoc 1 blowing out in June 1979. According to Wiki, the well was flowing an estimated 10,000 – 30,000 barrels/day (for the BP well we are estimating 5,000 bopd). It took them 7 months to shut it off by drilling a relief well. So when you hear this BP well is the worst catastrophe to date please remind and refer to the PEMEX Ixtoc 1 blowout.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I
Anthony
Thanks for this wonderful website! I am a ‘fish out of water’ here as a biologist/naturalist in my sunset years! I read everything here and watch Glenn Beck every day! Your site keeps my mind young and FREE!
I developed agrichemical ‘weapons of mass destruction’ for many years, and watched nature rapidly adapt to every weapon, by using them as a tool! There were winners and losers.
Nature LOVES this crude energy being released by man, trapped in the ground! Nature won’t wase it! Only man politicizes it!
Many species will be the benefactors of this mishap, probably not humans, we don’t adapt fast enough. Last I checked nature is doing quite well at Chernoble, Mt. St Helens, Arctic. Prince Edward’s sound is currently devoid of life!
Back to watching two beautiful bluebirds building thier future in a nestbox I provided!
As long as humans can communicate, we can adapt!
Thanks Anthony!
“(remember also the
Chinesse tanker and the Great Barrier Reef).”
“The front fell off!”
Enneagram says:
May 1, 2010 at 7:34 am
AlanG says:
April 30, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Oil is organic. It’s biodegradable; a natural product that contains no artificial preservatives, flavors or colors. What’s the problem here? You would think the environments would love it!
I do agree. All the rest is hysteria.
—-
Benzene, Toluene, PAH’s – yes, they are organic, persistent, carcinogenic …
For Mikael Pihlström
“Will the bugs really eat the most toxic PAH’s also, in the tar etc? And
if they will, it will get into the food chains. Better if they don’t, but then
we would have polluted sediments to some extent.”
Mikael, I don’t have a clue. Actually, I had to Google “Toxic PAH” to know what it was as per below.
–PolyAromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) may be released into the environment from hydrocarbon fuels, through the incomplete combustion of organic substances, or through natural decomposition processes. Lighter PAH compunds are generally more water soluble and therefore are more bioavailable to aquatic life and cause more acute effects. However breakdown times are much shorter than for heavier compounds. PAHs with more than four rings, being less volatile and soluble, favor adherence to solid particles.–
I am a petroleum reservoir engineer not a chemical engineer or chemist. How an oil actually degrades or breaks down is not something I have had the pleasure of learning since it is not significant to my area of interest which is how fluids flow in reservoirs.
johnnythelowery says:
May 1, 2010 at 6:20 am
“At what depth does the cap have to be installed at…..5,000 Ft or 18,000 ft?”
It would be at the sea floor at 5000 ft
Here are the Deepwater Rig Specifications!
http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Deepwater-Horizon-56C77.html?LayoutID=17
Though different in construction, the disaster looks like the 2001 PetroBas P36 rig disaster for the coast of Brazil!
http://www.bluestarline.org/farstad/p36.html
You can find an oversight of rigs, spills and disasters here:
http://www.oilrigdisasters.co.uk/
If you can read from the rig specifications Haliburton is the certified partner cementing the drill core! WSJ came up with the following article
Drilling Process Attracts Scrutiny in Rig Explosion
“The scrutiny on cementing will focus attention on Halliburton Co., the oilfield-services firm that was handling the cementing process on the rig, which burned and sank last week. The disaster, which killed 11, has left a gusher of oil streaming into the Gulf from a mile under the surface”.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572504575214593564769072.html
My personal opinion is that we have to wait for the official investigations of the accident before we draw any conclusions!
Relevant to the current spill is this comment from Fresh Bilge:
“The Gulf of Mexico is not the Gulf of Alaska. The water is warm, constantly churned by winds, and full of oil-eating microbes. Also the sun is high and fierce from now through August promoting evaporation. Oil will break up quickly, not persist for years and years as it did in the cold sheltered fjord where Exxon Valdez broke its back. However churning is one thing, raging another. One hopes we will be done with the Gulf spill before any hurricanes arrive. Gulf season starts earlier than the Atlantic, and tropical storms are not uncommon in the Gulf beginning in June. A storm could push oil much deeper into vulnerable coastal marshland.
Accident? Sabotage? Industrial Espionage? Guess we’ll never know the way this thing is playing out. Deepwater Horizon Gate? BP-gate? Gulf-gate? Obama’s Katrina? And we just watched in childish wonder as the great and wonderous US Congress turned medical care into a Federal Program. “My Fellow Americans and Citizens of the World”, as Presidents love to say, me thinks we up a creek without a paddle.
As for cleaning up this little mess, I understand there’s a bunch of nice coal dust on TVA property that’s just going to waste and doing nothing productive. Perhaps someone could load it onto a thousand barges and tow it down the Ol’Missasipp and out to sea and blow it on the oil to sink that nasty stuff in the gulf before it kills the tidal wetlands along the Gulf coast.
PS: The problem with Lemmings is that they rarely know what to do. By the time they make up their minds its too late and they’re out of options.
Potential Nature article by physicist claims to show that CO2 responsible for only 5-10% of warming.
http://alfin2100.blogspot.com/2010/04/science-journal-nature-opens-to-climate.html