Pools of Oil Found on Gulf Seafloor

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

What A Surprise.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Researchers say they’ve found patches of oil believed to be from the BP leak on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor. Some of these are two inches thick.

University of Georgia researcher Samantha Joye (JOY) says she and her colleagues have found oil as much as 80 miles from the Deepwater Horizons well. She says the latest sample was taken early Monday and the oil covered newly dead creatures, such as shrimp and deep-sea worms.

The scientists have collected at least 10 samples from the sea floor, about a mile down. Testing is needed to confirm it is BP oil. But Joye says it has the appearance of recent oil from the busted well, not old oil.

 http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin…

Hmm. Now one of the most ridiculed statements by Matt Simmons (recently dead in a ‘hot tub accident’) was:

….enormous pool of crude is accumulating below the sea floor…

wiki

Which prompted responses from both left and right like this comment from a poster on truthout:

A pool of oil at the bottom of the Gulf? Oil floats, sorry

I guess those people have never heard of dispersants, never saw the video of BP and the US government directly injecting dispersant into the leak, and spraying it from boats and planes on the surface.

Here is is again:  

OK. So what happens now? The oil sitting on the floor 1 mile deep is killing all bottom dwelling life that for sure. It’s quite likely that this oil can no longer be broken down because:

1. It’s not known if oil eating bacteria can survive at those depths.

And

2. Even if they can, they definitely can’t survive in low oxygen environments, such as dead zones, caused by a plethora dying of sea creatures.  

The American government has caused these bottom killing pools to happen.

They have designed a program to cover up one of the greatest environmental crimes in the history of humankind, and their efforts to shift blame from themselves and BP have done far more than that–they have made this spill far, far worse than it otherwise would have been.

Mr Obama: you do have a legacy.  

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  1. and part of that will now say ‘he was right about oil pooling on the gulf floor’.

    And, another part will always serve to remind us all not to ever say bad things about the US before hot-tubbing.  

  2. Assume a coverage 5cm deep. in one square kilometer of sea floor that would be 50,000 cubic meters of oil. At 42 gallons of oil per barrel and with 1gal.= 0.0038 M3 that gives one barrel = 0.16M3 and 312,000bl/Km2.

    Consider that this is in the ballpark for the amount of oil released per week for 16+ weeks. In the most fortuitous case that would concentrate the residue on only 17 or so square kilometers of sea floor. It would likely even cost out to retrieve the oil residue were it so concentrated or where it is so concentrated. At the very least, at $75+/bl it would defray the costs of clean up.

    But it is also likely that much of the oil, perhaps up to half of the above estimate is still suspended at mid depths in the GOM. Could these plumes be or when they are identified, the so called “White Whale” tanker, in conjunction with pumps and tubes that could be lowered into the plume could recover much of that.

    But even if this is feasible and even near cost effective it may never be done. But this gives an idea how large a pool of 5,000,000 bl of oil spread ~2″ deep would be. Of course it is quite possible that a much larger area is covered with ~ 1/2″ of oil. Hope Dr. Joy keeps taking samples.

  3. From the Times-Picayune

    Via Monkeyfister on Monday, Sept 13, 2020.

    A new wave of black oil suddenly came ashore west of the Mississippi River on Friday and Saturday, coating beaches and fouling interior marshes, according to anglers’ reports. Ryan Lambert, owner of Buras-based Cajun Fishing Adventures, said about 16 miles of coastal beaches in Plaquemines Parish from Sandy Point to Chalon Pass were lined with black oil and tar balls. Meanwhile anglers returning to Lafitte told Sidney Bourgeois, of Joe’s Landing, that new oil was surfacing on the eastern side of Barataria Bay in the Bay Jimmie, Bay Wilkerson and in Bay Baptiste areas.

    The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries confirmed the following oil sightings in Plaquemines Parish on Friday:

    Plaquemines:

    Half mile of oil located in the marsh of an unnamed marsh island on the SW side of Bay Jimmy.

    One-mile long by 20 yards wide area of tar patties located in West Bay 2.15 miles NW of Outlet W-2.

    Large area of 6 foot to 12 foot diameter tar balls locate in Scott Bay .8 miles NNW of Double Bayou.

    2500 feet long by 300 feet wide area of heavy oil sheen with surface oil droplets and submerged oil located offshore .85 miles west of the Southwest Pass East Jetty.

    “It’s just suddenly came up Friday and it’s along the beach for mile and miles, and drifting inside in some spots, ” Lambert said. “There were quite a few dead red fish on the beach, and just thousands of dead pogies (menhaden) inside the bays. And there a really big areas of sheen right off the beach.

    “Everyone thinks this is over, but it’s not – not if we can still get soakings like this.”

    More at the link.

  4. The devastation, “death” and other manifestations of BP’s criminally negligent made disaster are endless and scary!

    Dr. Riki Ott, the marine biologist and toxicologist, was on the Thom Hartmann show, Monday afternoon, September 13th.  Dr. Ott, who continues to go up and down the Gulf coast, revealed some seemingly uncanny type events.  She described how a family in Florida, living inland within some some 50 miles of the Gulf, and owned a swimming pool.  First, either the male or female, then the other, wound up with rashes, and developed severe headaches and even blood in the urine.  Doctors didn’t know what was wrong with them.  An analysis of their swimming pool water showed up traces of Coexit mixed with oil.  How did it happen?  Coexist breaks down the oil into minute particles and the minute particles of oil cling to it, Coexit particles.  When moisture is in the air, these particles get “sucked” up into the moisture and then it rains and these minute particles come down with the rain. And, there have since been other incidents of families developing symptoms, here and there, in the coastal areas.  There is much information on Dr. Ott’s website on the medical perils caused by the combination of oil and dispersants. Talks of “toxic rain” have been going on a bit now — see here.

    Of course, the oil that has since been found in varying forms of plumes and balls, in various levels of the columns, to me, just represents the oil that “got away” and escaped a total breakdown, but had been interspersed with sufficient Coexit, so as to sink it — BP’s style, hide it, so their fines per barrel would be nearly impossible to determine and diminished their fine liabilities.

    But here is the worst thing to come out of Dr. Ott’s mouth:  BP has never ceased using Coexit — it is being used right now, this day.  And just for kicks — who produces Coexit?  Coexit is produced by a branch of BP.      

    So, the ocean “life” continues to perish!  

    Unfortunately, there is not yet a transcript of this visit by Dr. Ott, on the Thom Hartmann show, as yet.

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