I’m sure you’ve seen the picture of tarballs on the beach splashed all over the MSM after hurricane Isaac came ashore in Louisiana. The left leaning website Think Progress (parent of Joe Romm’s Climate Progress) framed it this way:
A Greenpeace research team took samples from beaches along the Alabama coast on September 2, including from an area with hundreds of tar balls in the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.
Reuters was still pushing the story yesterday. CBS News says:
Tests run by Louisiana State University for state wildlife officials confirmed that oil found on Elmer’s Island and Grand Isle matched the biological fingerprint of the hundreds of millions of gallons of oil that spewed from BP’s Macondo well.
Old oil washes up on La. beaches after Isaac
On Wednesday, BP PLC said oil from its spill had been exposed by Isaac’s waves and that the company would work to clean it up.
What’s interesting is that this isn’t anything new. Tarballs wash up on the Gulf beaches with regularity.
You can learn a lot searching though old articles, for example this one from NASA Earth Observatory
Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
But the oil isn’t destroying habitats or wiping out ocean life. The ooze is a natural phenomena that’s been going on for many thousands of years, according to Roger Mitchell, Vice President of Program Development at the Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat) in Rockville Md. “The wildlife have adapted and evolved and have no problem dealing with the oil,” he said.
Science Daily also covered it: Scientists Find That Tons Of Oil Seep Into The Gulf Of Mexico Each Year
Here’s a peer reviewed paper on the subject from 2002,
Transfer of hydrocarbons from natural seeps to the water
column and atmosphere
I. R. MACDONALD1, I. LEIFER2, R. SASSEN1, P. STINE1, R. MITCHELL3 AND N. GUINASSO JR1 1Texas A&M University—GERG, College Station, TX, USA; 2University of California, Chemistry Department, Santa Barbara, CA, USA; 3Earth Satellite Corp., Rockville, MD, USA
From the abstract:
The northern Gulf of Mexico contains hundreds of active seeps that can be studied experimentally with the use of submarines and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV).Hydrocarbon flux through surface sediments profoundly alters benthic ecology and seafloor geology at seeps. In water depths of 500–2000 m, rapid gas flux results in shallow, metastable deposits of gas hydrate, which reduce sediment porosity and affect seepage rates. This paper details the processes that occur during the final, brief transition — as oil and gas escape from the seafloor, rise through the water and dissolve, are consumed by microbial processes, or disperse into the atmosphere.
Here’s another back to 1988:
Leakage of deep, reservoired petroleum to the near surface on the gulf of Mexico Continental slope
Marine Chemistry, Volume 24, issue 1 (May, 1988), p. 39-59.
ISSN: 0304-4203 DOI: 10.1016/0304-4203(88)90005-9
Elsevier Science
Where they say in the abstract:
Reservoired oils, shallow sediment cores (2m), sea slicks and tar balls were collected in the Green Canyon Lease area of the northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope. The gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons associated with near surface sediments and water have migrated from deep (2000-3000 m) subsurface reservoirs and/or source rocks. This conclusion is based on molecular (GC/FID, GC/FPD, GC/MS) and carbon isotopic evidence. Visual observations at two locations on the continental slope confirm the presence of massive amounts of active liquid as well as gas seepage. Hydrate gas recovered in sediment cores originates from deep, oil-associated gas. This gas has migrated to shallow sediments with little or no isotopic fractionation. In contrast, near surface hydrocarbon liquids (shallow bitumens and sea slicks) are depleted in aliphatics, 4-ring or larger aromatics, naphthalene, C1-naphthalenes and C2-naphthalenes as compared to the reservoired fluids. These near-surface fluids are extensively altered by the concurrent processes of migration, dissolution and microbial degradation. However, the distributions of highly alkylated (> C2) naphthalenes, phenanthrenes and dibenzothiophenes, triterpanes, steranes and triaromatized steranes are similar to the precursor reservoired oil. This study documents, for the first time, a direct link between natural seepage in a deep water marine setting and sea slick and tar ball formation. This and other studies suggest that the natural seepage of oil and gas can be a significant process in the deep ocean.
Combine that with this story yesterday:
Inconvenient bacteria eats a good portion Deepwater Horizon oil spill
At least 200,000 tons of oil and gas from Deepwater Horizon spill consumed by gulf bacteria
Researchers from the University of Rochester and Texas A&M University have found that, over a period of five months following the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, naturally-occurring bacteria that exist in the Gulf of Mexico consumed and within five months removed at least 200,000 tons of oil and natural gas that spewed into the deep Gulf from the ruptured well head.
And I just can’t get too worried about things like this. Nature seems to deal with it effectively.
California has the same natural tarball feature: California oil seeps
http://oils.gpa.unep.org/facts/natural-sources.htm
As pointed out by the National Research Council (NRC) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, “natural oil seeps contribute the highest amount of oil to the marine environment, accounting for 46 per cent of the annual load to the world’s oceans.
But that sort of factual reporting doesn’t sit well with the current alarmism, so you won’t find it in the recent barrage of news articles.
h/t to reader Jimbo
“Petroleum….the OTHER renewable energy”
Once again the green meanies have lied to humanity….the reason there is Methane under every rock you frack is that is is being constantly produced. And NO Dr Brown….a giant BP Methane cloud did NOT drive regional temperatures that summer….the SUN did.
I wonder if BP is just looking at this as a cleanup or if they think they can recover some of the oil from the tar balls?
I remember standing on a tar ball on the beach in Byron Bay in Oz took me half an hour with sand to get the bloody stuff off with a nice red foot.
Although my mate stood on a jelly fish and I’m sure most of you know what we had to do, luckily we where 20 somethings and had been drinking all day.
In the ’50’s and ’60’s I would regularly have to clean the tar off of my feet after spending a day at the beaches in So. California… Beaches like Hermosa, Redondo, Manhattan.. even up to Malibu and Leo Carillo. If tar balls accumulate and there is no natural remediation, then why aren’t the beaches today covered in tar??
It certainly wasn’t little kids like me collecting them on our feet in the summertime and taking them home for our parents to dissolve with kerosene…
In the world of hazardous materials response, we don’t usually speak of pollution but of “contamination,” which is different from exposure. Exposure is coming into personal contact with something nasty (like the fine aroma of a former road-warrior skunk along the highway).
Contamination, on the other had, we often note is just something where it should not be, like chewing gum stuck to the sole of your shoe… That would appear to be the case here…
“I’m sure they are, but they’ll be excoriated if they don’t do something, even if some of the oil isn’t theirs. – Anthony”
“And I just can’t get too worried about things like this. Nature seems to deal with it effectively.”
Name a place on Earth where this takes place naturally (see picture)? Name one? It happens every year according to you. Please tell me where?
http://www.myhero.com/images/guest/g264158/hero89540/bird%20oil.jpg
Robbie –
There are lots of natural oil spills.
http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=EE1FB5A2-FE98-459E-9488-7AC9F54E37E
But, but, if we remove all the foodstuff from the bottom of the Gulf and burn it in cars, an entire ecosystem will be starved to death for the lack of natural oil seeps. It is certainly worse than we thought, just think of what it would do to biodiversity. The upshot is natural tarballs, as all things natural, is a blessing, only artificial ones hurt birdies.
/sarc
Anthony:
The drift of your comments seems to validate or even excuse BP’s culpability for the criminal negligence related to the blowout in the Gulf spill. Dumping millions of tons of crude on the floor of the Gulf has had serious consequences, as might be expected. In all honesty, the impact has yet to be fully quantified. It is known that in the harvesting and trapping sites associated with the spill, the catch is off 30-40%. Other factors are in play so the situation is not completely clear cut. But the early signs point to the toxic gunk that covers large tracks of the seabed as being a key factor in the drop off.
I’m not in favor of dragging in ideological chestnuts to the otherwise indispensable WUWT website. There are plenty of other sites where people can spout off on politics and economics. That kind of tub-thumping, does not, in my opinion, enhance the prime mission and credibility of WUWT . Once you start importing your own brand of bromides to the site, the scientific credibility becomes vitiated. Your judgments on matters of climate science start to come into question.
Some restraint in matters not related to climate and atmospheric science probably serves best, the prime mission of WUWT. Just a friendly suggestion.
Why would BP argue if they are being given it all and it is valuable?
Surely they are working on ways to collect, sell and profit from it as oil extraction continues to decrease natural oil seeps. They must be laughing frequently at how they can be causing a major reduction in the pressure behind natural oil seeps and a reduction in all the life forms that depend upon it while being blamed for the opposite.
Robbie says:
September 12, 2012 at 12:33 pm
“Name a place on Earth where this takes place naturally (see picture)? Name one?”
.
“When Marco Polo in 1264 visited the Azerbaijani city of Baku, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, he saw oil being collected from seeps. He wrote that “on the confines toward Geirgine there is a fountain from which oil springs in great abundance, in as much as a hundred shiploads might be taken from it at one time.”
From Wiki
Perhaps thanks to Big oil it does seem to happen less often now. So the birds live on until that terrible wind turbine day comes along.
It seems that just about anything and everything that happens in nature is now blamed on Mankind … and, of course, with enough money and authority some members of Mankind claim they can fix it.
siliggy says:
September 12, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Robbie says:
September 12, 2012 at 12:33 pm
“Name a place on Earth where this takes place naturally (see picture)? Name one?”
.
“When Marco Polo in 1264 visited the Azerbaijani city of Baku, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, he saw oil being collected from seeps. He wrote that “on the confines toward Geirgine there is a fountain from which oil springs in great abundance, in as much as a hundred shiploads might be taken from it at one time.”
From Wiki
Perhaps thanks to Big oil it does seem to happen less often now. So the birds live on until that terrible wind turbine day comes along.
______________________
That gets you a Gold Star pasted next to your name.
Coal Oil Point off the coast of Santa Barbara is the second largest natural oil seep in the world. It releases a large amount of methane, and I believe it is a very substantial contributor to air pollution in Santa Barbara.
JD
Robbie you might want to rain in your indignation as Greenpeace says ‘hundreds of tar balls’ so it is probably easily remedy with a bucket and a pair of gloves.
Argh. A chemical is a chemical is a chemical. It does not matter if it came from a green plant or a Monsanto plant. Toxicity is determined by dose and route of administration. Everything and nothing is toxic without specifying what and how much and how it is delivered. The earth is 6 quintillion tons of chemicals. Puleeze give me a break.
Or is it sextillion, I forget ;(
Will this do?
http://blog.bird-rescue.org/index.php/2011/01/natural-oil-seep-prompts-bird-rescue-in-calif/
http://bird-rescue.org/media/15581/bird-rescue-news-release-oil-seep-3-2-2012.pdf
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2012/03/08/how-to-keep-californias-natural-oil-seeps-from-killing-birds-allow-drilling/
http://www.boemre.gov/omm/pacific/public/Library-PDFs/Biological-Communities.pdf
It seems the answer to the naturally oiled birds is………………………………………….allow more drilling off the coast.
I hope this does not count as a vicious put down. 😉
Robbie, check this out:
Robbie, please don’t read this as a vicious put down. I just want to get at facts and truth. That’s all. Have a nice evening.
I learn something new everyday. From Wikipedia:
“The petroleum fly, Helaeomyia petrolei, is a species of fly from California, USA. The larvae feed on dead insects that become trapped in naturally occurring petroleum pools, making this the only known insect species that develops in crude oil, a substance which is normally highly toxic to insects.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helaeomyia_petrolei
OMG! If all the oil seeps are cleaned up, these cute little buggers will become extinct! I certainly hope Lisa Jackson will do as much to protect this endangered species as she has done to protect the Polar Bears!
Most oil fields have been discovered by finding the sources of seeps, so much of the oil we’re taking out of the ground was the same stuff which was leaking out anyway.
Tar balls are definitely caused naturally, and occur even in the remote Seychelles Islands, stuck in the middle of the Indian Ocean. For as long as anyone can remember, tar balls have washed up onto the pristine white beaches of the Seychelles during the north-west monsoon period between November to February.
“And I just can’t get too worried about things like this. Nature seems to deal with it effectively.” … tell that to fishermen in Alaska!
Bilkadi writes: “In a true sense then, the politics of oil in the ancient Middle East sealed the fate of Antony and Cleopatra” (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199404/bulls.from.the.sea.htm).
He relates how the Arabs were involved in the first known oil wars, Nabateans in the bitumen battles to be precise. 2500 years ago they or their predecessors waited on the shores of the Dead Sea for great blobs of tar to surface, and they would race out in reed boats to claim them (the boats, like the Yahwist Noah’s ark, were probably sealed with the pitch). Genesis 14 tells of an army being bogged down in slime pits in the same area, one element of the story which we must admit smacks of authenticity.
Sea level has probably an insignificant effect on oil seeps, but this is not the case for endorrheic lakes, like the Caspian and Dead Sea, where fluctuations can be drastic. We would expect some relation between recent climate and tar/oil commerce in the regions of these lakes: dry conditions lead to falling surface elevation, reducing pressure on the seeps. That’s why things like that don’t happen no more nowadays. –AGF
Julian Flood says:
September 12, 2012 at 10:17 am
Oh, yes, the Siberian seas:
Laptev, Kara and Barents seas area is about 3*10^6 km^2. East Siberian 1. Total 4 * 10^6 km^2 which is 4* 10^8 hectares. Let’s call it 10^9 hectares.
JF
The arctic is not a good comparison with the Gulf of Mexico in regard to bacterial degradation of oil, since temperature plays a big role on the rate of bacterial (or any other) metabolism.
Thus for instance some very large oil discharges in the Arabian sea have dissipated very rapidly, vanishing after just a year or two, while discharges in temperate or Arctic oceans linger for longer since bacterial action is much slower.