Perspective on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill |
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| by D. Robinson |
When Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf (August 2005), America felt the wrath of disaster in her finest hour. But as Americans know now, the real disaster occurred ‘when the levees broke,’ pushing so much water into the gulf and major rivers, that flooding was inevitable. All gulf lying states suffered irreparably, along with the gulfs’ natural wildlife and all coastal lying businesses.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, aka: The BP Oil Spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, or the Macondo blowout, is a massive ongoing oil spill stemming from a sea floor oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill started with an oil well blowout, on April 20, 2010, which caused a catastrophic explosion. The Deepwater Horizon ‘offshore’ oil drilling platform that was situated about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the Louisiana coast.
The gusher originates from a deepwater oil well 5,000 feet (1,500 m) below the ocean surface. Numerous estimates have been made for the amount of oil being discharged, ranging from BP's current estimate of over 5,000 barrels to as much as 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The exact spill flow rate is uncertain, and BP has refused to allow independent scientists to perform accurate measurements. The resulting oil slick covers a surface area of at least 2,500 square miles, according to estimates reported in May 2010. In addition, researchers have announced the discovery of immense underwater plumes of oil not visible from the surface.
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