Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor

[kpete]

Source: NPR

Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor

by Richard Harris

September 10, 2010

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.

The Research Vessel Oceanus sailed on Aug. 21 on a mission to figure out what happened to the more than 4 million barrels of oil that gushed into the water. Onboard, Samantha Joye, a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, says she suddenly has a pretty good idea about where a lot of it ended up. It's showing up in samples of the seafloor, between the well site and the coast.

"I've collected literally hundreds of sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico, including around this area. And I've never seen anything like this," she said in an interview via satellite phone from the boat.

..................

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.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129782098&sc=17&f=1001

[Omaha Steve]

1. Knew this was coming

It didn't just vanish as BP was trying to tell us.

K&R!

[Vehl]

54. exactly!

I knew it the moment they started saying "oh the oil just vanished/dispersed"

[spin]

2. This will be a challenge to clean up...

an impossible challenge.

[onethatcares]

3. the average life span of American interest

is 48 hours. Then if it is something that hasn't effected them personally they'll move on to the next big thing.

but wait, oil eating microbes might have left that layer there?:sarcasm:

[eilen]

28. Lazy bacteria! bt

[CatholicEdHead]

4. Water is near freezing down there

so it will be there a while. It will eventually decompose and work its way into the seafloor, but there will be some delayed food chain effects in the near and medium future.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Its one of the purposes of dispersant -.

to form tar balls which sink to the sea floor. Looks like it was successful. The tarballs degrade with time due to friction amongst other things.

[bahrbearian]

9. Well than everythig is just peachy, drill here drill now, drill baby drill

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cstanleytech]

26. Just to bad they cant breed those deep ocean tubeworms that eat

oil, they could maybe help with the mess then assuming the dispersant of course isnt toxic to them.

[No Elephants]

39. So it will change form And?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass

[Name removed]

47. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Patchuli]

49. How about the side effects of the dispersant

which is toxic? I don't think it was worth it and maybe you should ask some sick shrimpers and fishermen in the Gulf if it was worth it?

[metapunditedgy]

6. It's "business as usual" until BP execs are in jail. n/t

[DeSwiss]

27. BINGO! n/t

[metapunditedgy]

29. Spread the word... there doesn't seem to be much interest anywhere for justice

for rich, white oil execs.

[TBF]

41. It will be business as usual until capitalism is eradicated -

it's not like those bad actors couldn't have come from any of the oil companies. It is the system that encourages the deviant behavior.

[metapunditedgy]

44. I disagree. Justice for BP execs would be a major change in the way things are done

in this country. There are serious systemic problems, but a little bit of justice (for once) would be an important step forward.

[TBF]

51. Criminals never think they are going to get caught.

As long as the system encourages greed/profit as motive there will be incentive to try to get away with it.

[bahrbearian]

7. Must have been loaded with oil eating Microbes,

[unkachuck]

24. which were....

....genetically constructed with oil-absorbing lead-pellets in there bellies....

[sasquuatch55]

53. Oil eating Microbes, although real, the propaganda as the "Great Solution" to the problem is rampant

nt

[hay rick]

8. Out of sight, out of mind.

Wonder how much longer we'll be seeing all those nice regular folks on TV who are going to "make it right."

[glinda]

11. Wonder if they could vacuum it up?

[givemebackmycountry]

12. Gee, I wonder if BP will run a commercial about THAT.

Because it's not as if they ain't running enough commercials right now telling us how concerned they are.
IF we find oil, we'll clean it up says Iris Cross of BP who is on my TV every 20 minutes.

HEY BP.
WE FOUND OIL NOW CLEAN IT UP ASSHOLES.

[Bobbieo]

13. Why does this not surprise me?

[IndianaGreen]

14. I fear it is only the tip of the iceberg

The food chain, what about it?

[lostnfound]

38. Food chain - what a quaint schoolbook idea. When BP writes the schoolbooks, problem solved!

Why is Oil Giant BP Helping Develop California Schools Environmental Curriculum?

[w4rma]

15. This is yet another reason why using that dispersent was nothing more than an attempt at PR.

It does *not* in any way shape or form help clean this mess up, which is better done at the top of the ocean, not the bottom.

[CountAllVotes]

16. BP never intended to do jack shit about any of this

all they really care about is their damn stock and how they can jack it back up so the pensioners will get their money and stay in lock step with them be assured! Nothing else is important to them but that! The way they have treated our country and its citizens pisses me off fiercely!! :mad:

TONY HAYWARD ROT IN HELL!

:kick:

[w4rma]

17. And the new CEO, supposedly an American, is even worse than Hayward, imho.

The temptation to do evil must be extremely great for people that make the kind of money CEOs make. I have a theory that CEOs don't get paid the kind of big bucks that they get paid to be good stewards of their companies, but instead make the huge dollar amounts that they make to ignore ethics and morals and destroy anything and everyone who might in some small way damage their stock prices.

I don't like this theory, because it would mean that the more income someone makes the more sociopathic one becomes. With a very few exceptions, it appears to be correct, however.

[CountAllVotes]

18. it all boils down to the same culprit IMO

and that is Wall Street. Period.

I was watching the message board for BP while all of this has been going on. They've recovered nicely now and the pensioners are happy. http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=bp

It is blood money plain and simple.

How many more must die? First our troops and now our planet and we shall follow along with the other "species" which are rapidly become extinct.

God this sickens me to no end. :puke: again ...

:kick:

[No Elephants]

40. Well, indirectly and partially. Wall Street is in NYC. We have 3 branches of government centered

in D.C., all of which have been very complicit.

And we don't hold the ones we elect accountable anywhere near as much as we should, especially if we see them as "one of us."

Blaming Wall Street is convenient because it lets you and me off the hook, given we are not in charge of hiring for Wall Street firms. However, we were in charge of hiring people who write laws and regulations, who failed to enforce laws and regulations against BP and others, and who gave BP permission for this drilling operation, despite numerous prior violations.

Inconvenient truth: You and I share the responsibility, along with the losses. We just don't share in much of the upside, except to the extent that supply side works--and that's looking mighty played out these days.

[TBF]

42. Actually the culprit is capitalism -

but you were close.

[civilisation]

19. as if oil evaporates,. . really?

I been saying this since the stupendous claims of oil being magicly gone,. oil just dont evaporate, the more volatile elements perhaps,. but the tar and dense hydrocarbons not at all,. the claims happily spread by the useless, so called, news networks would be just plain funny, if they where not such sad indicators of how our "news" reporters are nothing but corporate lie speakers.

[Kringle]

34. umm, pour some gasoline on the sidewalk, see what happens .nt

[bahrbearian]

35. pour some crude oil on the sidewalk and see what happens

[Kringle]

36. half will evaporate, so what? .nt

[Downwinder]

37. What is the residue? n/t

[Trajan]

45. So ... If I took a pile of shiat ....

and then removed half of it, you are prepared to call the remaining half dinner ?


Yeah ... You said it : So what ? .... Well here is so what :


Take one large measure of noxious material, remove half, and what do you have ?


LOTS and LOTS of remaining noxious material ....


Some of the oil corp apologists here ... I swear ....

[begin_within]

20. Sorry for my ignorance, but I thought oil floats on water, not sinks....

[w4rma]

21. When it's not mixed with 'dispersent' it floats. Binding it with 'dispersent' makes it sink. (nt)

[truedelphi]

22. This household has sworn off eating all the lovely tasty bottom feeders.

Supposedly the supermarkets in California must tell you where the seafood comes from, but I am too cynical to believe that the label would always tell the truth.

[NJGeek]

23. uhhh yeah - is this news?

where did everyone think the oil was going to go?

[Joey Kidd]

25. "where did everyone think the oil was going to go?"

When Obama took a dive it was supposed to be transubstantiated into pure H2O !

[Prometheus Bound]

50. It was supposedly being eaten by a new oil-eating microbe, according to a BP-funded lab.

New microbe discovered eating Gulf oil spill
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4516038

[Webster Green]

30. Holy shit! Shocking news.

[Hannah Bell]

31. i was told on very good authority bacteria had increased their metabolic rates & eaten all the oil.

when i questioned that story, i was told i was scientifically illiterate and should educate myself.

so your story obviously must be false.

AMY GOODMAN:

Interestingly, a new scientific study claiming that oil-eating microbes have drastically reduced the amount of oil from the BP well blowout in the Gulf—this news recently came in. Researchers at California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab say the microbes appear to have multiplied in number and increased their metabolic capacity to eat up much of the oil spilled in the Gulf.

The findings contradict several recent studies showing much of the oil remains in the Gulf. But they would bolster the Obama administration’s controversial assertions that much of the oil has in fact disappeared.

Now the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has extensive ties to both BP and the U.S. government. In 2007, the lab received the bulk of a controversial $500 million science grant from BP that went to the University of California. The Lawrence Berkeley lab’s director at the time was Steven Chu, who now heads the Department of Energy, which also partially funds the lab. Lisa Graves?

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/10/why_is_oil_giant_bp_helping

[Prometheus Bound]

55. Yes, we were lumped together with global warming deniers and flat earth believers.

[defendandprotect]

32. K&R --

[GoddessOfGuinness]

33. Duh. In other news...

The universe really wasn't created in 6 days.

[maryf]

43. K&Rnt.

[pleah]

46. K&R Anyone who thought that BP and the government were telling the

truth about the oil are damn fools.

[suffragette]

48. So it didn't evaporate or get eaten up by the bacteria

It's still there and needs to be acknowledged and addressed.

Sweeping it under the rug, or in this case ignoring it while the sand spreads a thin layer of seafloor on top isn't making it go away. And it still has a negative impact on the food chain.

Thanks for still posting updates on this kpete.

I went to see Dr John last night and he's not letting it go either, not Katrina, not Iraq, not BP. He played a very political set and has updated lyrics to his song "Black Gold" to add his views on what BP has done and show how it's connected.

Found a video here with that if anyone is interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFTBfAqzUKY

[Yeahyeah]

52. ABC today

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/oil-bp-spill-found-bottom-gulf/story?id=11618039