Oil Spill Clean Up Project

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Post
Keyword(s):  
Water Table ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Environmental Disasters ◽  
Cooking Oil ◽  
Class Project ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Offshore Oil ◽  
Oil Spill Cleanup ◽  
States History

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oilrig sank in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in an oil spill of 4.9 million barrels, one of the largest environmental disasters in United States history. In response to this disaster, the X Prize Foundation sponsored the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge, with a one million dollar top prize for engineers to develop better ways to clean up oil after an offshore oil spill. Inspired by the oil spill cleanup challenge, a class project was developed for students in a junior-level fluid mechanics course to develop and implement an oil-spill cleanup solution. Students had one semester to design and build an oil spill cleanup device. At the end of the semester final testing took place in a 20-foot long water table, which was filled with water 6 inches deep. Then for each team of 3–4 students 100 mL of cooking oil was dispersed into the water table, and they had 20 minutes to recover as much of the oil as they could. The grading for the project was based in part on the percentage of the oil the students could recover in the allotted time. The students employed a wide range of techniques, including skimmers, scoopers, and absorbers. The students also had to write a report explaining how their model solution in the water table could be scaled up to full-scale use in an actual offshore oil spill.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup exposures and incident coronary heart disease in the GuLF STUDY

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Strelitz* ◽  
Lawrence Engel ◽  
Richard Kwok ◽  
Aubrey Miller ◽  
Aaron Blair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coronary Heart Disease ◽  
Heart Disease ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Incident Coronary Heart Disease ◽  
Oil Spill Cleanup

scholarly journals The Gulf of Mexico: An Overview

Oceanography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Larry McKinney ◽  
◽  
John Shepherd ◽  
Charles Wilson ◽  
William Hogarth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Recreational Fishing ◽  
Environmental Disasters ◽  
Major Disaster ◽  
The Us ◽  
Large Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Hydrocarbon Reserves

The Gulf of Mexico is a place where the environment and the economy both coexist and contend. It is a resilient large marine ecosystem that has changed in response to many drivers and pressures that we are only now beginning to fully understand. Coastlines of the states that border the Gulf comprise about half of the US southern seaboard, and those states are capped by the vast Midwest. The Gulf drains most of North America and is both an economic keystone and an unintended waste receptacle. It is a renowned resource for seafood markets, recreational fishing, and beach destinations and an international maritime highway fueled by vast, but limited, hydrocarbon reserves. Today, more is known about the Gulf than was imagined possible only a few years ago. That gain in knowledge was driven by one of the greatest environmental disasters of this country’s history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The multitude of response actions and subsequent funded research significantly contributed to expanding our knowledge and, perhaps most importantly, to guiding the work needed to restore the damage from that oil spill. Funding for further work should not wait for the next major disaster, which will be too late; progress must be maintained to ensure that the Gulf continues to be resilient.

Oil spill tracking buoy—revolutionising offshore response and recovery

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 495
Author(s):  
Harry Houridis ◽  
Mellor Peter
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Scientific Instrument ◽  
Surface Currents ◽  
Deep Waters ◽  
Response And Recovery ◽  
Offshore Oil

April 2014 marked the four-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster; a rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and led to the worst offshore oil spill in US history. Oil gushed from the sea floor for 87 days before the well was capped an estimated 5 million BBL spilled into the Gulf, inflicting untold environmental damage. The event highlighted how little the industry knows about containing deep-water oil spills or about how oil spreads. Oil washed up hundreds of miles away on coastlines in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, but scientists struggled to determine where all of the oil had gone. Had some of it evaporated or was it hiding below the surface? Had it been carried by currents to the Gulf’s deep waters or perhaps even further? No one can say for sure. The resulting science highlighted that oil drifts along the surface of ocean water at 97% of current speed, but at only a fraction of the wind speed. During the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, the tracking buoys sat too proud and were driven the wrong way by the wind. It is essential to track the currents, since they account for at least 95%–98% of the ultimate oil spill trajectory. WorleyParsons designed, developed and deployed an oil spill tracking buoy (OSTB) to provide a scientific instrument for capturing only the surface currents. The specific gravity of each buoy is such that it tracks surface currents. Material selection and manufacture, ocean validation and telecommunication engineers came together to produce such a device, which is largely underwater but can continue to communicate with satellites.

Remotely-Sensed Oil and Shoreline Interaction Modeling

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 2600-2619
Author(s):  
Zachary Nixon ◽  
Jacqueline Michel ◽  
Scott Zengel
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Information Service ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Remotely Sensed ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Remotely Sensed Data ◽  
Oil Distribution ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Interaction Modeling

ABSTRACT No. 2017-233 The broad adoption of remotely sensed data and derivative products from satellite and aerial platforms available to describe the distribution of spilled oil on the water surface was an important factor during Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill both for tactical response and damage assessment. The availability and utility of these data in describing on-water oil distribution provide strong temptation to make estimates about on-shoreline oil distribution. The mechanisms by which floating oil interact with the shoreline, however, are extremely complex, heterogeneous at fine spatial scales, and generally not well described or quantified beyond broad conceptual or spill-specific empirical models. In short, oil on water does not necessarily lead to oil on adjacent shorelines. We combine data derived from NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) using a variety of satellite platforms of opportunity describing the remotely-sensed, daily composite anomaly polygons representing oil on water over multiple months with ground observations made in the field, collocated in time and space extracted from a newly compiled database of ground survey data (SCAT, NRDA and others) from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Because this new compiled dataset is very large (100,000s of observations) and spans a wide range of habitats, geography, and time, it is particularly suitable for inference and predictive modeling. We use these combined datasets to make inference about the relative influence on shoreline oiling probability and loading of distance from on-water oil observation via multiple distance metrics, shoreline morphology, water levels and ranges, wind direction and speed, wave energy, shoreline aspect and geometry. We also construct predictive models using machine-learning modeling methods to make predictions about shoreline oiling probability given observed distributions of on-water oil. The importance of this work is three part: firstly, the relationships between these parameters can assist hind-cast modeling of shoreline oiling probability for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Secondly, these data and models can permit similar modeling for future spills. Lastly, we propose that this dataset serve as a nucleus that can be expanded using data from subsequent or future spills to allow iteratively improvements in shoreline oil probability modeling using remotely sensed data, as well as an improved understanding of oil-shoreline interactions more generally.

scholarly journals Persistent and substantial impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on deep-sea megafauna

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 191164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig R. McClain ◽  
Clifton Nunnally ◽  
Mark C. Benfield
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Environmental Disasters ◽  
Coastal Impacts ◽  
Pelagic Food Webs ◽  
Commercially Important ◽  
Taxonomic Groups

The Deepwater Horizon spill is one of the largest environmental disasters with extensive impacts on the economic and ecological health of the Gulf of Mexico. Surface oil and coastal impacts received considerable attention, but the far larger oil spill in the deep ocean and its effects received considerably less examination. Based on 2017 ROV surveys within 500 m of the wellhead, we provide evidence of continued impacts on diversity, abundance and health of deep-sea megafauna. At locations proximal to the wellhead, megafaunal communities are more homogeneous than in unimpacted areas, lacking many taxonomic groups, and driven by high densities of arthropods. Degraded hydrocarbons at the site may be attracting arthropods. The scope of impacts may extend beyond the impacted sites with the potential for impacts to pelagic food webs and commercially important species. Overall, deep-sea ecosystem health, 7 years post spill, is recovering slowly and lingering effects may be extreme.

scholarly journals Determinants of oil-spill cleanup participation following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

2019 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 472-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Danielle Sharpe ◽  
John A. Kaufman ◽  
Zachary E. Goldman ◽  
Amy Wolkin ◽  
Matthew O. Gribble
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spill Cleanup

scholarly journals Novel Pathways for Injury from Offshore Oil Spills: Direct, Sublethal and Indirect Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Pelagic Sargassum Communities

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. e74802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean P. Powers ◽  
Frank J. Hernandez ◽  
Robert H. Condon ◽  
J. Marcus Drymon ◽  
Christopher M. Free
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ◽  
Offshore Oil

Mixing Oil and Water: Naturalizing Offshore Oil Platforms in Gulf Coast Aquariums

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 461-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
DOLLY JØRGENSEN
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Mississippi River ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Deepwater Horizon ◽  
Offshore Drilling ◽  
Aquatic Life ◽  
Oil Platforms ◽  
Offshore Oil Platforms ◽  
Offshore Oil

On 26 June 2010, the brand new Gulf of Mexico exhibit at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa opened devoid of life. The tanks were purposefully left empty, rather than showing the vibrant aquatic life of the Gulf, to highlight the oil spill associated with BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling incident earlier in 2010. According to the museum's press release, the museum wantedto open a Gulf exhibit recognizing the crisis that is happening on the Gulf Coast … The exhibit, without fish, now has the opportunity to make a bold statement related to the oil spill in the Gulf Coast by asking Museum & Aquarium visitors to imagine a lifeless Gulf.1

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