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."

Comments

Re:Exponential rate

[jcwren]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_(volume)#Oil_barrel

AAaaaa!, AAaaaa!

[Paracelcus]

AAaaaa!

Re:Actually it wouldn't...

[Zancarius]

If most of them are killed off, then yes, it is an extinction event, because it is an event that leads to the extinction of many species.

Not to nitpick, but I think you meant with regards to a species or species:

If all of them are killed off

Then it would be an extinction event. I'm not aware of any definition of "extinct" that is a synonym for endangered.