New images show oil’s spread; leak is 5 times worse than originally thought
Posted 04.30.2010 at 4:16 pm
20 Comments
Oil Slick Seen From Space The Macondo oil well is leaking almost 5,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico, five times more than originally thought. It's pretty clear from space just how much oil that is. The white speck is a plane flying over the slick.
DigitalGlobe
The massive oil spill from a BP offshore drilling rig threatens marine ecosystems and fisheries as it makes its way to the shoreline. Here's how it looks from above.
The Macondo well is spilling 5,000 barrels of oil per day into the gulf, about five times more than well owner British Petroleum initially reported. Efforts to stem the leak using controlled burning and even undersea robots have been unsuccessful so far.
As of this afternoon, the AP reports that two Air Force planes are awaiting orders to start dumping chemicals on the oil spill.
Oil Slick: The oil slick off the Gulf of Mexico, as seen from DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite. DigitalGlobe
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A preventable tragedy....
Ivan Malagurski
Sadly, massive oil spills are not a new issue.
Why has someone not invented a vacuum equipped ship that would suck up the oil-water, process it and separate the oil from the water, and retaining the oil? Huge pumps powered by locomotive size engines, with a water vacuum style head that could be lowered by an on-board crane could be used. This super vacuum head could be remotely steered and height regulated by it be attached to a small submarine type remote controller on the mother ship.
The special ship could be fitted with side thrusters like the cruise ships use for pinpoint steering and control. Once the onboard tanks of the ship were filled with the recovered oil, it could also be fitted with an onboard pumping system to empty the holding tanks into another ship.
Obviously conditions of the sea, waves and current flow would be needed to be addressed.
paul s
Good thing we just approved more off shore drilling.
Why don't we just torpedo the rig under the sea? Isn't it like a big straw?? If you melt it it will stop leaking. Simple.
z0ned, u must be zoned out, because an explosion is what caused this problem... Torpedos will not work.
No, what is really stupid is our dependence and use of oil. Oil/petroleum is out-dated, inefficient and also terrible for our environment, both extracting and burning it. WHY WON'T OUR GOV'T INVEST MORE IN CLEAN FUELS!?! As if roads and bombs(which is much of what the gov't invests in) are more important than the Earth we live on! I mean come on this is stupid!
Ohh yeah and plus its considered non-renewable(see my comment above).
LT94, If you want to get completely away from oil, try living one day without the products that are derived from using oil. You can't. Also there is more than enough fuel to supply the US alone for decades. As far as roads go, as a civil engineer the roads, no, infrastructure of our country is crap, the problem is allocating correct funding to the correct places; and just a little side note, with no oil means no roads, unless you like using gravel roads.
wow some people are a little off... Even if we do "remove" our dependence of oil, which is far from likely. Think of the things that uses petroleum. And non-renewable s have a constant drawbacks. Nuclear= Waste storage, and it's a limited supply. Wind= need wind 24/7. Hydroelectric= not eco friendly. Solar= not always sunny. Coal= you should know. Geothermal= can cause earthquakes.
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paul s, your forgetting about the oil sinking into the ocean's ground. But we already have those kinds of ships to recover oil.
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oh and zoned... explosions... imagine it having a chance of igniting the oil on top of the water, and then watch the smoke rise and enter the shore, not a healthy idea of people living near the shore.
why dont we just patch the holes with foam[temp]?
Wow downright scary. Wheres all those drill baby drill folks now?
Lou
www.vpn-anonymity.us.tc
I am a "Drill Baby Drill!" proponent. Jobs, energy independence, and continued cheap high energy density ORGANIC fuel. If the consequences of this reality are too hard for you, I urge you to attempt to go "oil free", you won't last a week. Oil has many more pros than cons. Don't be suckered by just the cons.
BP lobbied against having the US require remote cutoffs on the wells like Brazil does. And this is the result. Shames on you Congress for taking Oil money, Shame on you BP. I hope this busts your bank.
This is the Gulf, not Alaska. You won't be able to sweep this under the carpet.
The derrick actually takes oil from several wells. And while this may seem easy to fix from a distance, how to you propose to get close to execute these schemes? And how soon are you going to arrive to get it done?
lol
A very smart and diplomatic answer. It’s really appreciable and
general.
used hilux
drill a relief valve with a shutoff switch into the undamaged portion of the pipe and vent the oil out of that, making it easy to weld a huge piece of metal onto the broken end of the pipe (thus sealing it), then close the relief valve.
i have a better idea than the one i posted above, i hope nobody does this!!!!!!!!! i'm making a pictorial and/or movie hopefully, so keep thinking, we can solve this
This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and
needs to be appreciated by everyone.
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