Has oil reached Panama City?

[sontek]

I agree with Hetland, even if it never reaches our beaches, the effects on the food chain from the oil will probably be seen for years to come.

 

[mfolsom]

It seems that, although tragic, the oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon site is not unique. It occurs naturally all the time.
500,000 Barrels of Oil Leak into Gulf of Mexico - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

 

[mike_s]

It seems that, although tragic, the oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon site is not unique. It occurs naturally all the time.
500,000 Barrels of Oil Leak into Gulf of Mexico - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

I was reading something a few weeks ago that leaks happen a lot more than we know, but yet are just not sensationalized by the news media.

This one was because of the explosion, loss of human life, and the HUGE SIZE of the spill and platform sinking.


Hopefully we won't see another one like this again....

 

[Hetland]

It seems that, although tragic, the oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon site is not unique. It occurs naturally all the time.
500,000 Barrels of Oil Leak into Gulf of Mexico - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

apples and oranges. we're talking about 200,000 gallons A DAY form a single location, not the entire gulf over 365 days. you don't see oil slicks like the one around the accident site every day in the gulf, in fact, I've never seen one, and I've been going out regularly since I was a pup.

 

[jhayes75]

3 million gallons (and counting) of hydrocarbons in the food chain IS an ecological disaster. The fishery will take a hit even if the beaches are saved.

The basin of gulf of Mexico is approx 643,000,000,000,000,000 gallons.
Just to put this into perspective. If we triple the amount of leaked oil into the basin of the gulf of Mexico it would be equivalent to seven gallons of oil in a 50000 gallon swimming pool.

The Mississippi River pumps over 3 million gallons of water in the gulf per second.

Forgive me if my math is off.

 

[Hetland]

If we triple the amount of leaked oil into the basin of the gulf of Mexico it would be equivalent to seven gallons of oil in a 50000 gallon swimming pool.

Hopefully we won't have to worry about the tripled part, but how big is a 50,000 gallon swimming pool?

What is the "basin" exactly? I ask because the effected area only appears to be about 7% (visual guess) of the gulf's surface area, and probably much, much less than that volume-wise. If "basin" refers to the entire gulf, then then different numbers are needed.

Forgive me if my math is off.

I wouldn't bet against your math.

 

[jhayes75]

Hopefully we won't have to worry about the tripled part, but how big is a 50,000 gallon swimming pool?

What is the "basin" exactly? I ask because the effected area only appears to be about 7% (visual guess) of the gulf's surface area, and probably much, much less than that volume-wise. If "basin" refers to the entire gulf, then then different numbers are needed.



I wouldn't bet against your math.

A pool 70 x20 x 5 ft deep is aprox 52500 gallons. 7 gallons of oil would be .014% of the total pools volume. More than my numbers being accurate, I just want to point out how big the Gulf is.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I've heard on a few occassions that 1 gallon of motor oil can contaminate 1,000,000 gallons of water - yikes. I know whats floating out there isn't refined motor oil, but still...

 

[jhayes75]

I've heard on a few occassions that 1 gallon of motor oil can contaminate 1,000,000 gallons of water - yikes. I know whats floating out there isn't refined motor oil, but still...

Now this seems way off to me. Being that water and oil do not mix, just the surface would be contaminated.

 

[Hetland]

A pool 70 x20 x 5 ft deep is aprox 52500 gallons. 7 gallons of oil would be .014% of the total pools volume. More than my numbers being accurate, I just want to point out how big the Gulf is.

I was most impressed with the Mississippi volume-per-second. I'm afraid the gulf is a tad too big for me to wrap my brain around.