Gulf of Mexico: Different Shades of Crude Oil

Could it Get any Worse?

Yes, it probably could!

Growing Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico

Oil from BP’s damaged Macondo oil well (Deepwater Horizon platform) swamps the Mississippi Delta on July 4, 2010. Natural-color image captured by MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. Source: NASA E/O.  Click image to enlarge. Download large image (4 MB, JPEG)

Related Links:

• Mississippi Barrier Islands Attacked by Oil Slick
• BP Oil Disaster – Latest Satellite Images
• Oil Disasters

World’s Largest Oil Tailing Pond – Satellite Images

More Oil than Water in Gulf of Mexico?

The ‘Black Death’ Entered the Gulf of Mexico through Deepwater Horizon Wellhead

Oil leaking from BP’s Deepwater Horizon operation seen in varying shades of gray covering  a vast portion of the Gulf of Mexico.  MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite took this image on June 18, 2010. Source: NASA E/O. Click image to enlarge. Download large image (845 KB, JPEG)

But the 1st Outbreak of ‘Black Death’ in England Lasted only 1 Year

Plaque erected in Weymouth marking the arrival of the ‘Black Death’ [plague] in England in 1348.

Related Links:

• BP Hayward: Frankly, I Couldn’t Give a Damn!
• Gulf Oil Disaster: “It’s a war”
• Oil Disasters
• Gulf Oil Disaster: Why Obama Was Slighted
• Obama: A Serious Self-Hater

Gulf Oil Slick Dragon Tail Enters Loop Current

It looks very scary: Russian cosmonaut

As the Tail of Deepwater Horizon Oil Slick Dragon Enters Loop Current Moving Toward Atlantic Ocean, its Ugly Head Penetrates Louisiana Shore

As the tail of BP oil spill enters the powerful  Atlantic-bound Loop Current, the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station report  seeing the oil spill while passing over the Gulf of Mexico.

“It looks very scary,” Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov told reporters via a communication link.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill trajectory hindcast/forecast based on RTOFS (Atlantic)

This is a joint effort of the Ocean Circulation Group and the Optical Oceanography Laboratory at College of Marine Science, University of South Florida to track/predict the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico using simulated drifters/particles. Drifter trajectories were calculated based on the hourly surface currents from the RTOFS (Atlantic) (data assimilative numerical ocean model hindcast & forecast). Click here for animation page.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal who toured the contaminated shoreline said:

“The day that we have all been fearing is upon us today. This wasn’t tar balls. This wasn’t sheen. This is heavy oil in our wetlands. It’s already here but we know more is coming.”

[NOTE: NASA E/O Headline reads: Gulf Oil Slick Approaching Loop Current. NASA Earth Observatory says the 2nd of the following two images was acquired on May 18. However, it was posted as their image of the day on May 20.  By then the oil slick had already entered the Loop Current.]

Download large image (2 MB, JPEG) acquired May 1 – 8, 2010 — Click image to enlarge.

Download large image (653 KB, JPEG) acquired May 18, 2010 —Click image to enlarge.

Original Caption:

During the first weeks following the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico, oil drifting from the site of the incident usually headed west and northwest to the Mississippi River Delta. But in the third week of May, currents drew some of the oil southeast. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the southward spread increased the chance that the oil would become mixed up with the Loop Current and spread to Florida or even the U.S. East Coast.

This pair of sea surface temperature images shows how the warm waters of the Loop Current connect the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean (top image, May 1–8, 2010) and the dynamic northern margin of the Loop Current a week and a half later, on May 18 (bottom image). Based on observations of infrared energy collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, the images show cooler temperatures in blue and purple and warmer temperatures in pink and yellow. Cloudy areas are light gray.

The Loop Current pushes up into the Gulf from the Caribbean Sea. The current’s tropical warmth makes it stand out from the surrounding cooler waters of the Gulf of Mexico in this image. The current loses its northward momentum about mid-way through the gulf, and bends back on itself to flow south. It joins warm waters flowing eastward between Florida and Cuba, which then merge with the Gulf Stream Current on its journey up the East Coast.

At a May 18 press conference, NOAA reported that “satellite imagery on May 17 indicates that the main bulk of the oil is dozens of miles away from the Loop Current, but that a tendril of light oil has been transported down close to the Loop Current. NOAA is conducting aerial observations today to determine with certainty whether oil has actually entered the Loop Current…. The proximity of the southeast tendril of oil to the Loop Current indicates that oil is increasingly likely to become entrained. When that occurs, oil could reach the Florida Straits in 8 to 10 days.”

The bottom image shows the location of the leaking well and the approximate location of the southern arm of the oil slick on May 17 (based on natural-color MODIS imagery). Oil was very close to the Loop Current, whose warm waters appear in yellow near the bottom of the image. However, there is also an eddy of cooler water (purple) circulating counterclockwise at the top of the Loop Current. According to NOAA, “Some amount of any oil drawn into the Loop Current would likely remain in the eddy, heading to the northeast, and some would enter the main Loop Current, where it might eventually head to the Florida Strait.”
NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

Earlier Image:

Download large image (1 MB, JPEG) acquired May 18, 2010 —Click image to enlarge.

Sunlight and oil colored the surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico around the Mississippi Delta on May 18, 2010, as MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color image. The sunglint accentuates the left-to-right scans that the satellite sensor makes as it passes over the Earth’s surface, and the stripes are perpendicular to the satellite’s path. Besides hinting at the sensor’s scans, the sunglint also illuminates oil slicks on the sea surface. Bright oil slicks appear east and southeast of the delta. As in earlier images, the oil slick spans many kilometers off the delta. Not all of the pale-hued water, however, is slicked with oil. Image and [edited] caption: NASA E/O.

• View all NASA images of this event

How to Preserve [syn: Mummify] The Gulf of Mexico for Posterity

The following images are handout released by Greenpeace (via Reuters) — Click image to enlarge.

A Greenpeace Campaigner attempts to save a small crab covered in oil walking near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, where it enters the Gulf of Mexico, May 18, 2010.

Oil covers the bank of the breakwater in the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, where it enters the Gulf of Mexico.

Reeds on the banks of the breakwater in the mouth of the Mississippi River are covered in crude oil-dispersant chemical mic, May 18, 2010.

Related Links:

• BP Oil Spill: Turtles Are Dying
• BP Oil Leak: Mega Disaster Enters New Dimension
• BP Leak Already Biggest Oil Disaster in U.S. History
• Fire-Earth Oil Spill forecast
• Gulf of Mexico: A Waiting Disaster
• Oil Disasters [Index Page includes links to other oil spills, news and information]

• Reuters Image Gallery

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Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster: Satellite Photo – Update May 8

Already, the Gulf oil spill and the subsequent application of dispersant have caused incalculable damage to seafood

Oysters, shrimp, crabs and other shellfish in the Gulf of Mexico generate at least $6.5 billion in revenues annually.

“It [oyster] is not only the economic engine of this region, it is a real indicator of the environmental and ecological health of the Gulf Coast area,” said Jamie R. Clark, former head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and executive VP of  Defenders of Wildlife, a local conservation group.

NOAA Fishing Restriction News UPDATE:

NOAA has expanded commercial and recreational Fishing closure in oil-affected sections of Gulf of Mexico.  The closed area restricts fishing in about 5 percent of the Gulf waters. The earlier closure, which came into effect  last Sunday, covered  less than 3 percent of the Gulf of Mexico federal waters.  The fishing restriction will remain in place until May 17, NOAA said.

Oil Spill Reaches Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana

Light tan streamers snake across Chandeleur Sound in this detailed natural-color satellite image from May 5, 2010. The streamers surround Freemason Island and arc through Chandeleur Sound west of the Chandeleur Islands. The image is from the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.

The Chandeleur Islands are low, sandy barrier islands that are constantly being reshaped by storms, wind, and waves. Together with the Breton Islands to their south, they form the Breton National Wildlife Refuge. A variety of seabirds and shorebirds inhabit the islands, including the endangered brown pelican, least tern, and piping plover. Thousands of brown pelicans and other shorebirds are currently nesting on the islands and sea turtle nesting season is approaching, says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Image and Caption: NASA E/O. Download large image (3 MB, JPEG)

Trajectory Forecast

Mississippi Canyon 252 -NOAA/NOS/OR&R
Estimate for: 0600 CDT, Monday, 5/10/10 — Date Prepared: 1300 CDT, Friday, 5/07/10

This forecast is based on the NWS spot forecast from Friday, May 7 AM. Currents were obtained from the NOAA Gulf of Mexico, Texas A&M/TGLO, and NAVO/NRL models; and HFR measurements. The model was initialized from satellite imagery and analysis provided by NOAA/NESDIS obtained Thursday morning, and Thursday/Friday
overflight observations. The leading edge may contain tarballs that are not readily observable from the imagery (hence not included in the model initialization). Click image to enlarge.

News and Updates:

Two lines of oil booms are set up around one of the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana May 7, 2010 as seen from a plane used by the environmental group Mobile Baykeeper and Southwings to look at the damage caused by the oil spill.  Credit: REUTERS/Brian Snyder. Image may be subject to copy right. Click image to enlarge.

Oysters, shrimp, crabs and other shellfish in the Gulf of Mexico generate at least $6.5 billion in revenues annually.

Oyster, high on the list of seafood gourmet, “is also the backbone of marine life along the U.S. Gulf Coast and among the most vulnerable creatures now threatened by a giant oil spill.”  More at Spill could devastate U.S. Gulf Coast oyster reefs

BP says its best chance is to use the giant dome to contain and pump out the oil spill.

The 98-ton steel monstrosity has been lowered to the seabed about 1.5km below the surface with the container suspended over the leak . The is conducted using remote-controlled devices.  “It will hover there until they are ready. They hope to lower to sea floor today, but they need to finish prepping the surface,” the Unified Command Center late update said. More at Containment dome suspended just above U.S. Gulf leak

Robots have fail to shut the valves on the leaking BP oil wellhead. BP said it has abandoned its efforts to close valves on the failed blowout preventer using underwater robots. “We’ve essentially used up all those options,” Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP US said.  “We don’t want to do anything that would make the situation worse.”  More at Robots fail to close valves at leaking BP oil well

Related Links:

• GoM Oil Disaster – UPDATE May 7
• Gulf Oil Disaster: Why Obama Was Slighted
• Obama: A Serious Self-Hater
• BP Won’t Pay – Oil Spill Update May 5
• Why BP Didn’t Care – Oil Spill Update May 4

• Obama’s energy security falls around his ankles
• Exxon Mobile Court Orders Only Fraction of Damages
• Oil Disasters

• More Photos: Reuters Image Gallery

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Serial No 1,693. Starting April 2010, each entry on this blog has a unique serial number. If any of the numbers are missing, it may mean that the corresponding entry has been blocked by Google/the authorities in your country. Please drop us a line if you detect any anomaly/missing number(s).