Sentences with phrase «oil plumes»
"Oil plumes" refer to underwater columns or clouds of oil that are formed when oil spills into the ocean or other bodies of water. Full definition
Daily we followed maps of where the slick was blown; and the revelations of underwater oil plumes, and the succession of new estimates projecting successively higher flow rates, made for compelling reading.
bbc.co.uk
Their study, «Simulation of Deepwater Horizon oil plume reveals substrate specialization within a complex community of hydrocarbon - degraders,» was just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Now marine scientists who recently returned from a research cruise in the Gulf of Mexico say they have preliminary evidence that a new technique using sonar may be able to track undersea oil plumes far faster and better, although they caution that it is too soon to say whether the technique will succeed.
Massive subsurface oil plumes have been reported from the Deepwater Horizon spill by the research vessel Pelican, including one up to 90 metres thick that extends for 16 kilometres by 4.8 kilometres.
«Microbes eat [hydrocarbons] like we eat at a buffet: they like some compounds better than others,» explained marine chemist Chris Reddy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution during an August 19 press conference announcing the existence of such oil plumes — though their findings also published in Science suggested microbes were consuming the plume slowly in late June due to low levels of oxygen depletion.
New research suggests bacteria in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico may be eating oil plumes quickly
«That will help disperse it a bit and help it be degraded more quickly, so that's probably a good thing,» Not so good: «It's also going to move the oil,» adds Zappa, including both the oil slick visible at the surface and the invisible oil plumes in the seawater.
The researchers witnessed an initial rapid growth of a microbe that had been previously observed to be the dominant bacterium in the early stages of the oil release but which had eluded subsequent attempts by others to recreate the conditions of the Gulf of Mexico oil plume.
Early work on microbial activity after the oil spill was led by Berkeley Lab's Terry Hazen (now primarily associated with the University of Tennessee), which provided the first data ever on microbial activity from a deepwater dispersed oil plume.
Dispersant application at such depths has never been tried before and researchers are unsure how well it would mix with oil in the cold, high - pressure environment at that depth and in the rising oil plume.
As we feared, there are deepsea oil plumes and they are causing a dangerous drop in oxygen in the water because the bacteria that eats the oil (only some of it) also consumes a huge amount of oxygen (because there is so much of the bacteria).
More on Professor Joye's work: Joye Research Group and her Gulf Oil Blog More on the Gulf Oil Spill: Gulf Oil Plumes More Toxic to Microorganisms Than Thought 770,000 Gallons of Dispersant from BP Spill Didn't Degrade
If BP's claims that there's no underwater oil plumes doesn't turn out to be true, it could make the Obama administration even angrier.
Tuesday, June 1st Contradicting the findings of many scientists, BP denies the existence of underwater oil plumes.
«Microbe mystery solved: What happened to the Deepwater Horizon oil plume?
British Petroleum has created a 22 mile long undersea oil plume, measured as «dispersed» beneath the ocean's surface, stretching from the wellhead, toward Mobile Alabama.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ecologist Terry Hazen led a study, published in Science in October, that uncovered new species of oil - guzzling bacteria with genes that allowed them to flourish in the cold, high - pressure conditions of an oil plume 3,600 feet beneath the surface.
It also adds weight to reports of massive underwater oil plumes that government officials are now downplaying.
Using sonar devices on the NOAA ships Gordon Gunter, Thomas Jefferson, and Pisces, Weber and colleagues could tell that the oil plume was not spreading out more than a few kilometers underwater.
So far, no one has measured an impact on other ocean life from the drop in oxygen, which is unexpectedly small, a fact that Hazen ascribes to the dispersed nature of the oil plume.
Meanwhile, oceanographer Steven DiMarco at Texas A&M is trying to add the oil plume into a computer model of the biology and currents of the gulf.
With the assistance of co-authors Piero Gardinali of Florida International University and Ron Atlas of the University of Louisville, a suspension of small, insoluble oil droplets was evenly distributed in bottles, along with the more soluble oil fractions and chemical dispersant to mimic the conditions of the oil plume.
Per this article at Mother Jones we have reports of NOAA trying to suppress scientists (ala BP read here) by trying to cover up the oil plumes they claim are still floating around the gulf......
So, NOAA first tries to get USF to retract their report about the oil plumes and when that nefarious plan fails, they then proceed to try to talk them into keeping it a secret by not revealing it to the public.
Scientists claim they have found more than one oil plume, one of them «22 miles long, six miles wide and more than a thousand feet deep».
According to Care2, the study «found that popular to contrary belief, the dispersant did not degrade but instead moved with the oil plumes until at least September, 2010.»