Scientific Perspective, and the Gulf of Mexico

[scheming daemons]

Gallons of water in the Gulf of Mexico:. 643,000,000,000,000,000
Gallons of oil in the Deepwater Horizon spill:......... 200,000,000

Ratio of oil from Deepwater Horizon spill to water in Gulf of Mexico: 1 part per 3,215,000,000


Gallons of water in an Olympic size swimming pool:.. 660,430
Equivalent amount of oil in an Olympic size pool to match ratio of what was spilled in gulf: 0.0002 gallons


Want to know why the Gulf can "heal" from this spill? Go spill 1/5000 of a gallon of oil in an Olympic size pool. You've now contaminated that pool to the same level that the Gulf of Oil was contaminated by the Deepwater Horizon spill.



Yes. This spill was bad. The worst ever in American history.
Yes. We should completely stop drilling for oil in deep water. The risks are too great.



But all the amateur scientists here need to go back and research the IXTOC spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979. It also dispersed rather quickly. The differences between the Gulf of Mexico and Prince William Sound are many, but is mainly boils down to this:

1. Evaporation is accelerated in warmer climates and in warmer water.
2. Micro-organisms that feed on oil are much more abundant and thrive in the warm water of the Gulf and are almost non-existent in cold arctic water.
3. The waters of the Gulf of Mexico are much more turbulent than in Prince William Sound. This breaks up oil.
4. Tropical storms and Hurricanes are non-existent in Prince William sound.



Every person who's taken 10th grade science has likely heard the phrase "The solution to pollution is dilution". This is true with air pollution as well as water pollution.

The Gulf of Mexico is a pretty extreme dilution agent on its own... certainly better than the relatively stagnant cold waters of Prince William Sound (or your driveway, for those peddling that silly metaphor). Add in millions of gallons of dispersant, thousands of skimming boats, a couple tropical storms passing through, and you get much more dilution than you ever could get in a cold, static water basin like Prince William Sound.


Don't be scientifically ignorant. Look things up!

Go read about the IXTOC spill in 1979. Read about how a hurricane helped disperse it. Read about how the Gulf recovered faster than anybody thought.




There is no good place to have a spill, and that's why all deep-water drilling should be phased out and no new wells should be started.

But if you're going to have a spill... the warm, turbulent waters of the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season is the place where the least long-term damage will occur.

[northoftheborder]

1. size of Gulf of Mexico/vs/actual area where oil was gushed

The are where the oil was gushed and spread is much smaller than the entire gulf of Mexico, so your computation is off.

[scheming daemons]

5. It eventually spreads (dilutes) to the entire gulf

...actually... the entire planet.

[nashville_brook]

2. Meet me at Pangloss Beach. This is truly the best of all possible worlds.

[zeemike]

3. "The solution to pollution is dilution".

And it is all true....but.
That oil did not disappear but became one with the water and the animals that live in it and if we eat them part of us.
And what effects it has on us and life in the gulf is not so certain.

[scheming daemons]

4. True. And nobody has claimed otherwise.

1.25 million barrels of oil is still out there, even by rosey govt estimates.


But they did "collect" a whole bunch of it.... and some did evaporate... and some was artificially dispersed... and some naturally dispersed.

[zeemike]

6. And what happened to the evaporates?

And then you have the fact that the dispersant's are still out their becoming one with the sea.
What will all those chemicals do to the life and to us?....they don't have the answer to that...we are just experimenting.

[scheming daemons]

8. Chemically, the dispersants are similar to dishwasher detergent

We're ingesting some of that every day.... unless your dishes are PERFECTLY rinsed after washing.

[depakid]

7. Science requires accurate data and reviewable calculations- something the government doesn't have

and/or won't release.

Until he have that to review, all the rest amounts to spin.

[scheming daemons]

9. This will be the most scientifically-reviewed incident in our lifetimes

..... when all is said and done

[depakid]

10. I hope so, because Ixtoc wasn't

and there have been a lot of complaints from scientists throughout the process about being hindered in their efforts to collect data or review such evidence as there is.