MODIS/Aqua satellite image taken May 27, 2010, shows oil slick and/or sheen deeply entrained in the Loop Current and transported far to the southeast of the leaking well. Thicker slick and sheen is apparent in the vicinity of the leaking well site (solid orange line). Patches of *possible* slick and sheen, indicated by dashed line, show that oil from this ongoing spill *may* now be moving past the Dry Tortugas and into the Florida Straits and the Gulf Stream. Total areas of likely and possible oil slick or sheen apparent on this image cover 21,674 square miles (56,134 km2). Main body of oil slick lies along the western edge of the broad band of sunglint on this image.
5 comments:
NYTimes has the telling graphics.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/25/us/20100525-topkill-diagram.html?ref=earth
I would like to see a discussion or a program from scientists revealing the environmental consequences and of the uncapped leak. If the leak is not capped for another month, how much oil are we talking about, and given that amount of oil, what kind of impacts should we expect? Likewise, if it remains uncapped for 6, 7, 8 months, a year, two years, what are we looking at.
You would imagine that a lot of sea life will die and that species that can stand an oily environment would survive and maybe mutate. I wonder what would be the possibility of fires on the water and beginning on the shore leading up to massive fires of wetlands and developed residential and commercial properties near the water. Would we have water to put the fires out? Would our potable water supply be impacted with infection of the Biscayne aquifer? Given salt water infiltration, could we run out of clean drinking water? If it remains uncapped for a long period of time, would this end our way of life for several generations? How would we adapt to the new environment? Would we mutate too after eating fish that can survive in this environment, and being around toxic fumes generated by the contaminated water? There are many questions as we are in unchartered waters.
The scientific and engineering community need to step-up and start talking about the potential impacts. They can't lie back on easy street. This whole thing might eventually kill a lot of people.
Oil will come to the top of the water. Hurricanes like hot water, if hot enough, you might have fires on the water. Once a hurricane comes, the winds could spread oil all over the mainland for hundreds of miles. A cigarette or match could result in massive fires in places where the hurricane has spread oil. The fumes from the buring oil may be intolerable. Once oil gets in the drinking water, it will be undrinkable. If the leak goes on for years, we might be living in a dead zone.
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