Well, it looks like BP has maybe-possibly-if-nothing-else-goes-wrong-at-least-for-now managed to stanch the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, using a tighter-fitting containment cap. And I just stumbled across this video, which I, somehow, had missed before now. BP deals with a boardroom coffee spill…
Heh.
See, it’s funny because in the video, the oil has only been leaking for forty-seven days, but by now it’s been leaking for eighty-seven…
Ah, Christ.
Sometime early tomorrow, BP will try to stop their month-old geyser of red, sludgy death in the Gulf of Mexico with a “top kill,” injecting a mixture of concrete and mud into the well from the surface. If it doesn’t work, the only option left for stopping the flow is the “junk shot,” injecting a bunch of balls, rubber, and rope into the well head in the hope of clogging it. If neither of these work, I understand we’re SOL until a relief well can finish drilling.
The Boston Globe’s Big Picture has a series of photos of the blowout’s ongoing aftermath. They are truly heart-breaking, and bile-raising. But I couldn’t help but laugh when I read the following comment on The Oil Drum blog:
An analysis of the plans provided by British Petroleum has demonstrated a weakness in the well site. But the approach will not be easy. You are required to maneuver straight down this trench and skim the surface to this point. The target area is only two meters wide. It’s a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port. The shaft leads directly to the well head. A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should cap the well. Only a precise hit will set off a chain reaction. The shaft is ray-shielded, so you’ll have to use proton torpedoes.
That’s impossible! Even for a computer.
It’s not impossible. I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home, they’re not much bigger than two meters.
Then man your ships. And may the Force be with you.
May the force be with us…
This summer's Dead Zone has turned out smaller than predicted.
Last month, I wrote about the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone, and NOAA‘s prediction that it would be larger than usual this summer, due to a rainy spring and increased fertilizer use in the Midwest. In situ measurements from a recent cruise, however, have revealed a dead zone that is considerably smaller than the predictions—about 3,000 square miles as opposed to the predicted 7,450-8456 (thats two Rhode Islands instead of one New Jersey). That’s good news, though the dead zone appears to be closer to the surface than usual Typically, the oxygen-depleted waters are only found near the bottom.
It appears that high wind and waves prior to the cruise increased the mixing of oxygen into the Gulf, partly alleviating the effects of fertilizer-driven eutrophication. The full NOAA press release may be found here.
NOAA announced yesterday that the “dead zone” at the outlet of the Mississippi River will likely be larger than usual this summer, due to a combination of a rainy spring with increased stream flows and an increased fertilizer load from farms in the Mississippi basin. They forecast between 7,450 and 8,456 square miles of hypoxic water—about the size of New Jersey. Watch the following video for a nice visualization.
(Video available in large size here)
Nitrogen and phosphorus are the active ingredients in synthetic fertilizer. These elements, critical to the making of proteins, DNA, and other important life materials, are typically the limiting nutrients in soils, so adding synthetic fertilizer increases crop yields.
Nitrogen and Phosphorus, however, are also limiting nutrients in large areas of the ocean. This means that when fertilizer runs of from farms and enters the ocean via rivers, it tends to fertilize phytoplankton, the single-celled algae that form the base of the oceanic food chain. Huge algal blooms result, creating a sudden food bonanza for zooplankton and fish.
Soon, however, the zooplankton and fish start pooping, the phytoplankton start dying and sinking, and the bacteria go to town decomposing it all. Decomposition uses oxygen. Since the Gulf is stratified and stable during the summer, with warm fresh Mississippi water on top of the less-warm salty Gulf water and few big storms to mix it up, there is no way for new oxygen to get mixed down into the water column. As the bacteria feast on dead phytoplankton and fish poop, they draw down on the dissolved oxygen in the water, eventually leaving it too dilute for fish and most animals to filter out with their gills. When fish get caught in the hypoxic water, they go belly-up.
Fish Kill in Narragansett Bay, RI
The NOAA press release may be found here.
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