10 million gallon 'bath mat' of oil on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico

[Cattledog]

http://www.businessinsider.com/bps-deepwater-horizon-spill-has-left-tons-of-oil-on-the-gulfs-floor-2015-2

Scientists have already reported finding what they called a 1,235-square-mile "bathtub ring" of oil on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico left over from the huge 2010 BP oil spill.

Now it appears this ring is part of a washroom set: A different team of scientists has found that up 10 million gallons of oil have created what can be called only a "bath mat" beneath the sediment of the gulf's floor.

First the ring. David Valentine and colleagues from the University of California at Santa Barbara wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in October that about 10 million gallons of the spilled oil settled on the gulf's floor. Its size: about the size of the state of Rhode Island.

But what about the rest? As much as 200 million gallons of oil were spilled after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, owned by BP and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., exploded off the coast of New Orleans, killing 11 workers on the rig, injuring 17 more, and allowing oil to gush into the gulf for nearly three months.

All that oil has been hard to find. But a team of scientists led by Jeff Chanton found between 6 million and 10 million gallons buried in the sediment at the bottom of the gulf about 60 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta. Chanton is a professor of oceanography at Florida State University.

[Bluepinky]

1. So sad. All that oil should be deep underground where it belongs.

We should never have tried to take it out of the ground.

[global1]

2. Dumb Question: Can That Be Brought To The Surface Through A.....

vacuuming process? When brought to the surface - can it be collected and purified (water content, sediment, etc) taken out to yield pure oil?

[GreydeeThos]

4. The oil is not dense enough to recover

Ten million gallons of oil spread over 1235 square miles would be four ten thousands of an inch thick.

[JudyM]

3. There are no words for this. And the effing hubris of oil CEOs who want to drill in pristine areas.