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Gulf Gusher Worst Case Scenario
An anonymous reader writes "Here's a listing of several scientific and economic guides for estimating the volume of flow of the leak in the Gulf of Mexico erupting at a rate of somewhere around 1 million barrels per day. A new video released shows the largest hole spewing oil and natural gas from an aperture 5 feet in diameter at a rate of approximately 4 barrels per second. The oil coming up through 5,000 feet of pressurized salt water acts like a fractionating column. What you see on the surface is just around 20% of what is actually underneath the approximate 9,000 square miles of slick on the surface. The natural gas doesn't bubble to the top but gets suspended in the water, depleting the oxygen from the water. BP would not have been celebrating with execs on the rig just prior to the explosion if it had not been capable producing at least 500,000 barrels per day — under control. If the rock gave way due to the out-of-control gushing (or due to a nuke being detonated to contain the leak), it could become a Yellowstone Caldera type event, except from below a mile of sea, with a 1/4-mile opening, with up to 150,000 psi of oil and natural gas behind it, from a reserve nearly as large as the Gulf of Mexico containing trillions of barrels of oil. That would be an Earth extinction event."
The answer is blowing in the wind.
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Mussolini
Insightful... good work mods, your absolute shitness at rating posts prevails!
Can we get a mod to do a grammar check on the summary? It's atrociously worded and nigh incomprehensible.
Hey I care, and, let me say, this was the most informative and substantial post I've seen on Slashdot in a while. I kind of think we should all care about this. But you're welcome to go back to gabbling about Flash on an iPad, and quantum encryption proofs.
You're just mad that there isn't a mod for "-1 Annoying".
How many Libraries of Congress is that again??
A Volcano of Oil, Erupting ~Million Bpd
What? The home directory of Million? What does that have to do with anything?
There is a leak of oil in Mexico? When did this start? Why can't we just dump kitty-litter on it or something?
Does he use vi or emacs?
That is all.
I concur with most here. Please don't post this unfounded, alarmist nonsense to Slashdot.
If you're going to scare the crap out of me, at least do it with some integrity, fact-checking, and science.
My god damned kingdom for mod points. That's priceless!!!
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck