This is what a sea floor core should look like with no oil.
What shall we do with these BP fellows?
Their peers don't seem to want to punish them.
The Feds are pussyfooting around trying to find a way out of this.
The States are in bed whoring it up with them,
The media, well they are pretending it is old news.
What shall be done?
They found some more of the oil.
It is in a layer covering the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.
How much oil is there?
How much of the Gulf floor is ruined?
We don't know yet.
This is what the sea cores look like after the BP oil disaster.
Two inches of oil covering the bottom.
Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor
Thank you NPR for being true to your calling and to us.
"Scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are finding a substantial layer of oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Their discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn't simply evaporate or dissipate into the water — it has settled to the seafloor.".....
"Joye describes seeing layers of oily material — in some places more than 2 inches thick — covering the bottom of the seafloor.
"It's very fluffy and porous. And there are little tar balls in there you can see that look like microscopic cauliflower heads," she says.
It's very clearly a fresh layer. Right below it she finds much more typical seafloor mud. And in that layer, she finds recently dead shrimp, worms and other invertebrates.".....
"How did the oily sediment get there? Joye says it's possible that chemical dispersants might have sunk some oil, but it's also likely that natural systems are playing an important role.
"The organisms that break down oil excrete mucus — copious amounts of mucus," Joye says. "So it's kind of like a slime highway from the surface to the bottom. Because eventually the slime gets heavy and it sinks."
That sticky material can pick up oil particles as it sinks."......
"Joye's findings so far have found oil in depths ranging from 300 to 4,000 feet. Shallower waters, in particular, are potentially important not just for life on the bottom but for the entire marine ecosystem.
"A lot of fish go down to the bottom and eat and then come back up," Hollander says. "And if all their food sources are derived from the bottom, then indeed you could have this impact."
Figuring all that out though, will probably take many years."
So what is to be done?
Nothing?
2 comments:
Interesting. Crude is a complex mix of aliphatic and aromatic compounds, as well as asphaltic and paraffinic; but typically has a density of about 0.97Since sea water's density is about 1.026, the stuff should float. Whether a natural 'cracking' process
separates some of the heavier contents, or the
synthetic dispersants cause some, it would appear that the stuff stuck down in the bottom bioslime may be a somewhat modified crude derivative. My question would be; does the bacteria continue digesting once the stuff has sunk-and what byproducts does the bacteria produce? ..and since crude is made up of such a complex of chemicals, which are consumed by the bacteria?
Kind of like introducing rabbits in Australia...
It is almost counter-intuitive isn't it. Is the slime simply gathering up floating oil molecules as it decends? Then as it gets down 4000 to 5000 feet under the cold and high pressure what does it become. I don't know. Like the woman said it will be years.
One thing however that layer of dead marine life will give us a means to estimate what it killed.
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