What happens when 3.2-4.9 million barrels worth of crude oil spills into the ocean and its ship explodes in the middle of the waters?
This was the reality faced when an oil well of Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20th, 2010, just 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana, in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil spills occur when oil tankers, barges or pipelines leading out of refineries accidentally spill crude oil into rivers, seas or even land. It can also occur due to offshore platforms and drilling rigs.
The oil floats on water (immiscible liquids like water and oil don't mix) and spreads out as a thin layer on the water's surface, called slick. The heavier oil sinks in freshwater. As oil spreads out even further, it forms an even thinner layer called sheen, which is multicoloured and resembles the colours you see on a soap-bubble. Oil spills occur in large quantities, with the largest ever spill - the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - resulting in the leakage of about 1,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil per day. One barrel contains approximately 159 litres of oil. For reference, the average large bathtub can hold about 80 litres. Imagine 60,000 barrels of oil spilling out into water - per day. That's the impact an oil spill can have.
The main causes of oil spills are:
→ natural disasters
→ equipment malfunction/breaking down
→ carelessness of workers
→ deliberate acts of terrorism, vandals or illegal dumpers
How are oil spills cleaned & contained? Governments spend millions of dollars cleaning up oil spills, because removing oil from the ocean is very costly and dangerous if no action is taken, as it can pollute drinking water and kill oceanic ecosystems. To clean up this oil, a substance called a dispersant is used. These substances that emulsify the oil, thus allowing for easier metabolism by bacteria, and helps prevent the settling and clumping together of the oil. To help clean up the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, 1.8 million gallons of dispersants were pumped directly into the slick. Another device called the boom is used to contain an oil spill.
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