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Where is the Oil Spill?
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It's the largest environmental disaster in U.S. - and possibly world - history.
But do you know exactly where it is? Could you point to a map and show where the oil rig sank?
Do you know what the topography of the surrounding area is? Hint: If you think it's flat seafloor - as implied by BPs drawings - you'd be wrong (the spill site is actually located within a giant canyon system, rather than on flat ground).
This essay will provide some basic orientation as to ground zero for the oil spill.
Where Is the Spill Site?
Here is the spill site - designated with the fire icon - as shown on Google maps:
This NOAA image gives a basic overview of the oil spill site in relation to the surrounding area:
The
oil spill is occurring within the "Macondo prospect", which is located
in Mississippi Canyon Block 252 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Here is an image showing the Mississippi Canyon compared to other areas in the Gulf of Mexico:
This shows the relation of Block 252 to nearby sites:
Here is Block 252 shown in comparison with nearby sites:
And this is the definitive high-resolution map showing block 252 in comparison with other prospects in the Mississippi Canyon area and surrounding areas.
But
in order to really get a feel for what's happening underwater, we
should look at detailed topographic maps. Indeed, knowing the
topography and the geology at the spill site is crucial in
understanding the risks involved and being able to determine the best
approach for stopping the leak.
Topography of the Spill Site
Here's a map of the Gulf of Mexico:
Here's another map courtesy of Wired (the spill site is between the two sets of red hash marks):
Here's
an image of the Gulf of Mexico, showing the Sigsbee and Florida
Escarpments (Block 252 is approximately half way in between the 2
escarpments):
Here is a satellite image of the area provided by the Minerals Management Service and NOAA's Multipurpose Marine Cadastre:
Here is a close-up Here is a close-up (I placed a hand icon at the approximate location of the oil spill based on latitude and longitude):
Here is an image - courtesy of NOAA's GeoPlatform service - showing the topography surrounding the leaking wellhead:
Here is a close up of the same image:
Here is the same image with the spill location indicator removed, so that you can see the slope of the area at the spill site:
(Note: the GeoPlatform service is also very useful for forecasting the near-term trajectory of the oil spill).
Here is a map giving a different view of the steep canyon in which the oil spill site is located:
Some oil industry professionals are worried
that a landslide at the spill site could make the oil spill much worse
by carrying away the blowout preventer, riser and all other equipment.
While I have no idea how likely it is that a landslide could occur
before the well is capped, it is true that:
(1) The spill site is located in a steep canyon;
(2) There are hundreds of feet of loose mud and muck on top of the sea floor in this area; and
(3) Many deepwater, oi-rich areas within the Gulf are tectonically active.
Hat tip to Bret.
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the "junkers" of this and the previous post display their naive gullibility and/or emotional weaknesses........face it, you can only see one vision of terrifying eco-disaster, and refuse to open your eyes and accept accidents are a part of the price for humans living on this planet in the manner (the vast) majority wish to exist. True eco-disaster is the mega-asteroid that renders all life impossible.
Do I understand correctly that there are 3,500 to 4,000 platforms in the overall area?
Seems to me that, if not BP, someone else, at some point, would have had something similar occur, given the difficulties of the depth of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
DavidC
DavidC,
Who , and WHY do you think are behind the DEEP WELL drilling?.
Simple.............the Eco Nazi's, and the Government.(Clinton signed off on this shit).
Stopped all shallow water drilling, forcing Big oil to drill at these depths..............
No past experience, no empirical data, just you have no choice, of you want to drill at all.
Right. Like the 50m deep Ixtoc disaster?
The big rally in oats last week has me thinking that corn, beans, wheat, etc. will skyrocket when we realize toxic rain is coming soon to a farmbelt near you.
In the second to last image there are all those mounds. I think they are slumps or the pile left at the bottom of a sub sea avalanche. There are mountainsides above ground that are nothing but slump on top of slump and are caused by water greaseing the subsurface so that material above slides down the hill. All near surface materal is unconsolidated and explains the difficult drilling conditions.
Some 1 ounce jigs bounced along the top and sides of the mounds with some chartreuse plastic worms should reward the patient fisherman. Classic post-spawn holding areas.
Awesome perspective GW. It gives us a "feel". Much needed.
And in keeping with the theme surrounding this whole issue, sure everyone here reads rense.com, if not, take a pinch of salt and go there, there has been a rising tide of news about the methane content of the spill.
Cliff High at halfpasthuman.com had an astonishingly prescient prediction (as always it seems) as to the real nature of what is ultimately going to happen here.
I wish people could be proactive and start to move before IT, whatever that "IT" might be.
Change is always hard, especially when it is a change of a multi-generational lifestyle.
Yet, far better to change oneself than have change thrust upon you. Or so has been my life-experience.
If what we have see so far is just the trailer, the trajectory should be obvious to one and all, yes?
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up!!!
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
"Most people would rather improvise in the face of disaster than exert the pains necessary to avoid it in the first place."
Spoken by Howard K. Smith, a newscaster, in response to the loss of life in a large earthquake in Mexico in the early 1970s.
That whole Gulf of Mexico, Central American region looks tectonically active to me. Plenty of oil there.
Wouldn't be surprised if you've created yourselves a new undersea hydrocarbon volcano.
Do about 10 minutes of research on "Abiotic Oil"
This is abiotic oil comming out of this well - it's signature is radioactivity.
videos up on youbeetubee already
George,
Although interesting, i find zoomed out pictures of a continental shelf pretty useless when determining the actual slope of a subsea wellsite.
The only worthwhile picture you posted was from BP. It shows the bathymetric profile of the well site.
http://markimoore.com/uploads/bathymetry_MC252-510x364.png
It clearly shows that you are dropping around 50-60 ft for every 1000 ft into the canyon. Thats a slope of 3 Degrees!
If im missing something obvious (its late here) please respond and point out my bone headed ways.
Regards,,
\\\\\Broken
Ditto. The slope is not remarkable, according to the one local topo map provided, and most of the rest of the maps are nearly useless for establishing any other point made by the text.
I live on a steeper canyon that this, but not under 2300psi and the ground isn't mostly mud. While I enjoy GW's posts, this problem will turn out badly enough without speculation regarding mudslides. I think Dmitry Orlov summed it up best, when he said "there is no oil well—just a large, untidy hole in the sea bottom with hydrocarbons spewing out of it."
Good point. On closer inspection of the immediate location, it appears the slope is 10 feet vertical for every 125 feet horizontal. That's the top of a basketball hoop for the vertical, and three regulation half-courts for the horizontal.
Goodbye Gulf of Mexico - at least for the next 100 years. And if you believe that the areas nearby the spill are "safe" to live in based on what the government is telling you, remember the same OUTRIGHT LIES were told to people cleaning up the 9/11 disaster area - that it was "safe" to work in the thick dust of the rubble. And no matter where you are in the country, think twice before eating seafood sourced from the Gulf.
+911
Agreed, but there are many future possibilities and probabilities now in the making, this could very well be a planetary structural problem, if the oil continues to gush out indefinitely.
A methane explosion taking out much of Florida (possibility); hydrogen sulfide poisoning of life and oxygen-generating systems (probability); connection to present and future volcanic outpourings (evidently this "leakage" began before that Icelandic volcano burst started); and last, exponential cascading growth in climate changes, leading to an extinction-level-event (ELE).
sgt_doom
"A methane explosion taking out much of Florida"
DDDDUUUUDDDDEEEE!!!! That would be so fucking cool to see on the news. Toasted seniors mixed with their little dead dogs and steaming Pythons. Gators and Cubanos, hot chicks and rednecks all crispy and smelling of fried chicken. Is it possible to get Candy Crowley down there just to see her drool from the smell?
"Goodbye Gulf of Mexico - at least for the next 100 years. " Hysterical much? Five years from now most people will wonder out loud how this became such a big deal, given what else will have occured by then, and especially given the lack of serious long term environmental impact. This is a political event mainly, with a secondary economic component(drilling ban, short term fishing and beach revenue loss), of no lasting environmental importance.
Okay, you've succeeded, you win "clueless post of the day"
Your prize, a dozen tar balls for your wife, is in the mail.
Thank you!
I would not surprised, Taraxias, if TB or not TB is on the payroll of a public relations firm paid to write this trash on behalf of BP, or any other party that is trying to conceal the extent of the oil spill. One need only spend time listening to credible parties like Matt Simmons (a 77 year old billionaire who is concerned about his grandchildren), or read through the oildrum.com to understand the extent of this monumental disaster. I have many friends in florida, and professional contacts and they are frightened. I have also flown over the gulf before airspace was restricted and it is a mess. God help us all.
Bullshit. TBT is an AIPAC troll, first and foremost. Defending oil conglomerates is just a hobby he enjoys.
Unfortunately this is probably an accurate impression of what will happen to BP.
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2010/6/18_Ji...
This is a bad one, Deckard, the worst yet.
Watch those town hall style meetings down in LA with the volume off, look at people's faces closely. You'll see one thing--fear. Atavistic fear. Amazingly, the feds still think they can solve this by shuffling paper. Fatal mistake, imo.
GG- “Goodbye Gulf of Mexico - at least for the next 100 years. And if you believe that the areas nearby the spill are "safe" to live in based on what the government is telling you…”
And goodbye also to the American financial system if this unfolding nightmare is anywhere as bad is it now beginning to look. I personally can’t see the governmental controllers being able to keep up the lies and a lid on this thing more than about six more weeks before the panic begins.
I find the response of the Govt and Corporation(s) much more interesting:
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/06/17/you-splashed-incompetenc...
As Obama's perverted mindset rolls along politicizing this unfortunate, and tragic circumstance the United Southern States may indeed recognize this as a potential catalyst for secession. There seems to be a slow build of intense anxiety festering within Southern States. Obama's idea to use southern coastlines as impetus to further promote his odious green energy policies may find himself completely enthralled by his ability to divide the country, which will ultimately lead to his demise. Southern folk can only tolerate so much, and woe to those that get in their way.
Obama is not working for the good of the country, but is working for the good of the Obama Image!
Another steaming pile of farcism.
I find it interesting that this is happening in the same "approximate" area (tongue in cheek here), where the comet that took out the dinosaurs hit. Hmmm.
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