How big is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?

BBC ^ | 5/10/2010 | BBC

[Dallas59]

The current size of the Deepwater Horizon spill is hard to measure exactly, but attempts can be made to estimate it.

Based on oil flow calculations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr Simon Boxall, a marine pollution expert, says a total current spill can be estimated at about 7,000 to 10,000 tonnes of oil. (See factbox below for how this was worked out.)

But such estimates should always carry a caveat, he says, as these can be affected by factors such as the condition of the rig, the well and the quality of information available.

[null and void]

It only needs to be big enough to shut down all American drilling off our coast.

MMS Approved 27 Gulf Drilling Operations After BP Disaster

Apparently we're not there yet...

[FoxPro]

Doesn’t this happen naturally from time to time throughout history?

I mean if it is down there, under pressure, couldn’t an under sea earthquake, open up a fissure, and have the same thing happen from time to time?

[healy61]

Does this well have “peak oil” figures. Won’t it run out fo oil?

[norraad]

It depends on pressure gradients.

Deeper higher pressure finds higher lower pressure.

Like our lymph system, it moves from place to place when enough pressure allows.

[Louis Foxwell]

Doesn’t this happen naturally from time to time throughout history?

Seepage is a natural event, occuring all the time. The amount of leakage so far is of no consequence evnironmentally.

[wbill]

yes, it does. In fact, there are a number of "oil seeps" off the California coast. Oil just leaches off into the ocean. The current political climate won't allow us to drill for it (and, I'd think, maybe help control the seeps).

This was a good article, with plenty of perspective. This is an issue that needs to be fixed, but neither is it the end of the world.

Which is strange, because all of the MSM coverage that I've seen certainly is portraying it as such. :-)

[norraad]

Would be nice to put little funnel sucker pumps down on the seeps to collect that oil.

[wbill]

Not allowed, I'd imagine. But I don't know for sure. Certainly makes sense to me, too. But....

"Common Sense" has no role to play when "Overreaching Government" and "Environmentalism" are involved.

[goseminoles]

You said seepage. LOL

[walford]

Now we need a graph depicting the relative media coverage per metric ton.

[a real Sheila]

tell that to the folks on the coast of Louisiana!

[a real Sheila]

The MSM has suddenly backed off!
They’ve been given their marching orders because it is making Obama look bad. Just wait until those beautiful white sand beaches in the gulf turn black and are littered with oily dead birds! And wait until the coral in the Keys is dead.

Black oily beaches will equal Obama NOT winning FL in the next election.

[roses of sharon]

(this is interesting)

But far bigger than any of these peacetime accidents is the amount of oil spilled in the immediate aftermath of the first Iraq War, 1991. Although not a single offshore spill, it saw massive oil leaks that easily dwarf Ixtoc 1 with an estimated 1.4 million to 1.5 million tonnes of oil released into the Persian Gulf by Iraqi forces as they retreated from Kuwait.