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Oceanographer "Cannot Think Of Any Scenario Where The Oil Doesn't Eventually Reach The Florida Keys"
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As I explained in detail yesterday, the oil spill may be carried by the "loop current" to Florida: How could the oil get all the way from Louisiana to Florida, where the Gulf As Discovery explains: Many ocean scientists are now raising concerns that a powerful current could spread the still-bubbling slick from the Florida Keys all the way to Cape Hatteras off North Carolina.
These oceanographers are carefully watching the Gulf Loop Current, a "It could make it from Louisiana all the way to Miami in a week, maybe less." said Eric Chassignet, director of the Center for Ocean Atmospheric Prediction Studies at Florida State University. "It is pretty fast." Right now, some computer models show the spill 30 to 50 miles north of the loop current. If the onshore winds turn around and push the oil further south: "That would be a nightmare," said Yonggang Liu, research associate at the University of South Florida who models the current. "Hopefully we are lucky, but who knows. The winds are changing and difficult to predict." Imagine the loop current as an ocean-going highway, transporting tiny The Gulf Loop Current acts like a jet of warm water that squirts in from the Caribbean basin and sloshes around the Gulf of Mexico before being squeezed out the Florida Strait, where it joins the larger and more powerful Gulf Stream current. *** Oceanographer George Maul worries that the current could push the oil slick right through the Florida Keys and its 6,000 coral reefs. "I looked at some recent satellite imagery and it looks like some of the oil may be shifted to the south," said Maul, a professor at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla. "If it gets entrained in the loop, it could spread throughout much of the Atlantic." In fact, new animation from a consortium of Florida institutions and the A graphic from the Discovery article shows what the Gulf loop current
Stream flows?
clockwise swirl of warm water that sets up in the Gulf of Mexico each spring and summer. If the spill meets the loop -- the disaster becomes a runaway.
plankton, fish and other marine life along a watery conveyor belt. Sometimes it even picks up a slug of freshwater from the Mississippi River -- sending it on a wandering journey up to North Carolina.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, predicts a slight southward shift in the oil over the next few days.
looks like:
The Gulf Loop Current enters from
the Caribbean basin,
moves around the Gulf of Mexico and
exits out the
Florida Strait, where it joins
the more powerful Gulf Stream current.
Naval Oceanographic Office
According to ROFFS, the oil spill is getting close to the loop current:
Unfortunately, we may be only 24 hours away from oil entering the loop current. As AP writes today:
Scientists say the Gulf oil spill could get into the what's called the Loop
Current within a day, eventually carrying oil south along the Florida coast and
into the Florida Keys.Nick Shay, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said Monday once the oil enters the Loop Current, it likely will end up in the Keys and continue east into the Gulf Stream.
***
Shay says he cannot think of any scenario where the oil doesn't eventually reach the Florida Keys.
As Orlando's Fox 35 notes:
Brevard County oceanographer, Mitchell Roffer is watching the oil on the
south end of the spill. He says it's starting to push into the gulf stream.
"Thats going to then get pulled around into the loop current then get pulled
down around the east side of loop current off of Tampa and into the Keys," said
Roffer.He's tracking winds and currents to try to determine where and
when the oil slick hits Florida's East Coast. He says its only a matter of time.
"I think its a question of when, and my colleagues all believe the same thing, I don't believe it will be an if," Roffer said.
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+10
Nibblin on sponge cake
Watchin the sun bake
All of those tourists covered with oil
Jimmy Buffet
Margaritaville
+1
Also some of you have pointed out that the MSM and BP along with the govt. is lying about how much oil is coming out. At one time they where saying 1,000 barrels and on Friday they said 5,000 barrels. In all actuality they really don't know and are just throwing stuff out there. And that big dome/retangular monstrosity that they showed and are attempting to sink over the leak and pump the oil from it may not work. For one it has never been used in water at a mile deep, and two they have to make sure they can get it down there without hitting any of the wreckage. And on top of that if they get it on top to cover the rupture, then you have a problem. For one you have the pressure of the ocean pushing on that surface of the dome structure at 2,400 pounds per square inch (at sea level we humans are experiencing 15 to 18 PSI on our skin at all times). Then you have the pressure building up from the inside if it covers the rupture from the oil. All it takes is one crack and it's over, the pressure and water/oil will start to break the containment and it's over.
"For one you have the pressure of the ocean pushing on that surface of the dome structure at 2,400 pounds per square inch (at sea level we humans are experiencing 15 to 18 PSI on our skin at all times). "
And your skin pushes right back at 15 to 18 psi at all times, otherwise you would implode. And yet, note that this force on your skin goes unnoticed. Same thing with a chunk of solid steel or concrete sunk 5000ft deep. Only the pressure differentials matter, not the absolute pressure. I gather the inside of this contraption will be filled with water and oil at roughly ambient pressures for 5000ft depth.
You hit the nail on the head...Nobody really knows anything other than it's gushing unabated. That's why it drives me nuts when the MSM rushes a headline saying that everything is under control. I want this to end as quickly as they do but I also want to know the TRUTH! Only the TRUTH will give us the ability to deal with the REAL problem. Amazing how that theme translates across all walks of life.
And the associated professions & trades....
I was in the business a long time ago. Actually worked offshore a few hitches on similar rigs (1980, so no technology for such deepwater).
Even then we had to be very careful about what was allowed to be dumped into the Gulf. I too was very careful except for that one unfortunate incident where the roughneck convinced me to try Skol... Poor Gulf of Mexico took an environmental beating when I puked my brains out through the catwalk into the water 80 feet below...
Very sorry your honor, guilty as charged.
Not supposed to swallow DCRB!
this is one of the best threads in months, I just read it from first to second last, it's like someone authored it - brilliant
Hmmmmmmm....
I imagine most of the LOL's and cutesy Rabbit Humping comments come from NorthEasterners, who think they've been spared the south's misery.
No such luck mi amigos! Or is it amigoEs?
Anyways, all one big web you know? And "lighten up, laugh a little" is just plain wrong. Only a people brought up on canned laughter, especially at someone else's misery/expense (yup, the three stooges set you up (physical stuff) and Sinefield smacked you down (intellectual)) could find something even remotely funny is what is going on here. Either way, you've been had.
The collective and individual conscience of our time is buried so deep that getting through to it has become all but impossible.
Sleepers, one and all.
remember where Sinefeld (love the spelling) and his mates ended up in the end of the last episode?
exactly
Where Tip e?
I left the US or had quit TV before final season, though I do remember the hype around it.
I'm assuming somewhere, as some would say, "in a not so good place"?
And as for the typo, hmmmmm... always fruedian, wonder what that meant.
here ya go OrI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Finale_(Seinfeld)
i think i quit tv once & for all shortly after that. too many sine waves flooding the optic nerves :)
Grazzi Tip E.
And funny and fitting finale!
In a twisted sort of way, if you get my drift...errr...wave!
Thank you ZH for providing detailed info; the best I can find on the spill! The best coverage around for all things news! Keep it up!
Thanks again, as this spill might prove to break the back of the economy.
+1
True. This is good coverage.
We need oil below $75/bbl if we are to have any chance at economic recovery. (This could also be the knife that slits the democrats' throats...excessively-priced gasoline.)
Make BP pay for their wrecklessness, then keep drilling.
Unlike Alaska or Santa Barbara, hurricane season will "clean up" the Gulf.
+1
On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions. The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.
http://movetoamend.org/
this movement is going after halliburton, aig, exxon mobile, blackwater......etc.
BP Oil Spill Worsens With No Solution in Sight, 210,000 Gallons a Day Spew into Gulf of Mexico"We the corporations" | Move to Amend
http://www.democracynow.org/
worth a peek (after the news headlines), We speak with Riki Ott, a marine toxicologist and a former commercial salmon fisherma’am from Alaska who experienced firsthand the devastating effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
riki tells it how it is. the corporations are just gang raping any and everything they can get their hands on.
BP told to stop circulating settlement agreements with coastal Alabamians
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News — ... should stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal Alabamians. The agreements, King said, essentially require that people give up the right to sue in exchange for payment of up to $5,000. King said BP's efforts were particularly strong in Bayou La Batre. The attorney general said he is prohibited from giving legal advice to private citizens, but added that "people need to proceed with caution and understand the ramifications before signing something like that.
keep it up darlin...you're getting warmer
PALIN AND SEN. SHELBY WILL GET BAIL OUTS FOR GULF STATES !!!!!!!!!! SOUTH WILL BE JUST FINE !!!!!!!!!!! NORTH WILL PAY FOR IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Palin? From Alaska?
caps are just fine here, and in the very small sample was not offensive . some folks just have anal retentive tendency's
anals are always trying to be some sort of commander in chief of the world
and when they have a chance to go after a little nothing ..anals
bring out a sludge hammer to hit the knat .
and their shrill language then becomes more offensive then what they thought was a major problem.
Your comment, dumpster, is your best one yet!
If gold gets to $50k like GG and I think it will, you should join us for drinks, my treat.
you give the ready sign ,, DoChenRolling Bearing,, CR for short /. the dumpster needs a new pair of shoes
Excuse me but some of your brains slipped out of your nose and landed on the "CAPS LOCK" key. Please remove said brains from said key. Do not try to reinsert brains in nose.
just enjoy paying for the gulf states bailout !!!!!!!!!! bush/ mr. hanky paulson/MCcain bailed out goldman and session and selby will to it gulf states are as well !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The only "people" who will pay for anything are the future generations of America, if we're still here.
Those blue pills must really crunch...
Actually, this might be the best scenario if it keeps the oil off the Gulf beaches and estuaries. There aren't that many people in the Keys, lots of coral, but not many people. Once in the Gulfstream its going to be heading out to sea past Miami.
The worst scenario is having the oil foul the big metro areas of Tampa/St.Pete and Miami at least in terms of economic damage.
I hate to say it, but thats the exact thing that came to my mind..Maybe spreading this thing out is acually good..Instead of having it concentrate and bombard a perticular area..And then on the other hand , we are getting more areas possibly impacted..Whats the worst of the two I dont know..
Spreading this thing out? It's not a one time event "spill" ~ this is an active volcano of natural gas and crude until capped. The damn thing tripled in size over the past 4 days. And if they can't cap it soon, the "relief well" is 60-90 days out from completion.
That sounds great!!!! Who needs the ocean anyway.
Save the Keys and the coral reef.
Well, unless the US wants to try and survive on about of 1/3 of the oil we now use we have to bring what we can't produce on land in by sea.
That means either bring it in via offshore wells or tanker. Had this spill been the result of a big tanker carrying Venezuelan crude to a Gulf coast refinery foundering or breaking up at sea you could have had a million barrels in the water in a day not over a few months.
So choose your poison. Tankers have accidents and offshore wells have accidents. Accidents happen. The difference is we get to keep the money for oil produced in our territorial waters and we have some control over the conditions of its production and transport. We don't have much control at all over foreign flagged tankers.
You are correct, sangell.
BP is liable, and we move on.
By the way, is Iceland gonna pay everyone for the gunky ash that landed on the beaches nad forests of Europe? What about the hassles at airports?
Wow, I hope you don't have kids for their sake. What kind of world do you want to leave them?
You're very eloquent. What are you about 13 or just eternally immature?
Just an idealist. Nothing like resorting to name calling.
Industrial accidents happen. Even big ones like this that are real threats. Find out what happened (who to blame), and then we can move on.
Sure some of us here in Florida have a grotesquerie to look forward to, but we will get past this.
Stay cool everyone, buy gold & ammo, and ferchrissakes don't worry about China. Instead worry about you and your family.
PALIN SAYS SPILL BABY SPILL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MAYBE SHE CAN GET GOOD PR JOB AT BP ????????????
I love how we debate over man's effect on the environment. Once again, Mother Nature shows us who's boss. This is not a threat to the planet. It's a threat to our existance. The planet couldn't care less what lives on it.
I love how these debates are held.
Man's effect?
With such premises...
No, some men's effect on the environment.
Stupid to consider that the Amazonian jungle dwellers are behind this event. They might though in first line and half when it comes to face the consequences of it.
And this changes the conclusion. Mother's nature will show other men who's the boss.
Because this event will not affect people who triggered it.
And maybe time to admit that all these events wont damage people who commit them, but other people.
Humanity is not going to disappear. Part of humanity might be and that wont be the part responsible for the mess.
The Planet will be here long after mankind has ceased to exist.
Ergo, "Save the Planet" is self-centered, egotistical save my very particular way of life because I love it too much.
Hypocrisy, incarnate.
It's been said that the ecosystem after a nuclear war isn't gone....just....simplified for a while.
Hell, looks like to only blue plate special getting served in the near will be North Atlantic Scrod with Quaker State...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOZllbNarw
+1E2 ROTFL
Thanx
- that was fucking intense .