[ScienceD] Deepwater Horizon spill: Much of the oil at bottom of the sea

[Science Daily]

Deepwater Horizon spill: Much of the oil at bottom of the sea

Due to its unprecedented scope, the damage assessment caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been a challenge. One unsolved puzzle is the location of 2 million barrels of submerged oil thought to be trapped in the deep ocean.

http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/science...182948.htm

[cookiedough]

2 MILLION barrels? holy crap.

[edcoolio]

2 MILLION barrels? holy crap.

Considering that one cubic mile of water contains over 1,000,000,000,000 gallons of water and that there are 42 (U.S.) gallons per barrel, that would be a concentration (if it were ALL to be spilled and contained within only one cubic mile of ocean) of 0.00008

It sucks, and it was a bad accident, but the oceans are much much larger than most (including me!) can fathom. I suppose that is how certain jets can disappear in the middle of an ocean, never to be found.

[cookiedough]

I'm glad you did the math and not me. : D

Also it will likely not leak out for many years to come. Not sure how durable those barrels are?

[edcoolio]

The 2 million number is just an equivalence estimate of non-dispersed or unaccounted for oil - remember that it was an oil well and pumping station. No physical barrels.

Think yellowstone geyser, under the ocean.

[cookiedough]

Ah Okay. I thought it literally meant barrels.