Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Giant Plumes of Oil Forming Below the Gulf's Surface

Posted by Soulskill on from the we-are-bad-at-this dept.

An anonymous reader sends in a NY Times article about the spread of oil from the BP gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. Quoting: "Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide, and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given. ... The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes. Dr. Joye said the oxygen had already dropped 30 percent near some of the plumes in the month that the broken oil well had been flowing. ... [Scientists on the Pelican mission] suspect the heavy use of chemical dispersants, which BP has injected into the stream of oil emerging from the well, may have broken the oil up into droplets too small to rise rapidly. ... Dr. Joye said the findings about declining oxygen levels were especially worrisome, since oxygen is so slow to move from the surface of the ocean to the bottom. She suspects that oil-eating bacteria are consuming the oxygen at a feverish clip as they work to break down the plumes."

8 of 483 comments (clear)

  1. i LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    you americans are fucked, hahah. thats what you get with your evil oil companies.

    1. Re:i LOL by Elektroschock · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      There is a difference. In Europe we don't have media which tells us oil was natural and doesn't harm. No one would focus on his oil stock prices but rather on the wildlife.

    2. Re:i LOL by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      One, you're a dumbass, and two, BP is getting their ass reamed in the media over here. Granted, we care less about the deep ocean than we do about the coastline, but harm to the environment is far and away the chief concern, and in that regard we've been pretty fortunate that very little oil has touched ground, but your anti-American bullshit isn't grounded in any sort of reality.

      BP is a European based company, by the way, fucking up our environment, you asshole.

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
    3. Re:i LOL by Bigjeff5 · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      You've never been to America, have you? We don't all live in obscenely crowded cities over here, where public transport can be made to be efficient and walking somewhere is an actual option.

      I imagine you super-fit, super industrious, hard working Europeans (who, in many countries, work a shorter work week by law than the US) would be perfectly ok walking 10 miles to work every day. Why, since reality doesn't apply to you, you could probably make the trip in five minutes!

      Really though, I think all your bullshit stems from bitterness and jealousy. The fact that your economies are such shit that they are so dependent on ours such that a bubble in our fucking housing market causes whole countries to go bankrupt in Europe has just got to eat you the fuck up.

      Did I mention that you're all jealous assholes?

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
    4. Re:i LOL by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      And who owns BP and TransOcean?

      A clue, look closer to home.

      If this spill is America's fault, those spills are Europe's, dumbass.

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
  2. Re:Where's Sarah Palin by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    No. You don't get to get away with this one. The left may spew slogans, but the right produces mantras. Mantras that are to be chanted until they become truth. This was one of them. They need to eat every one of those words.

    --
    Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
  3. Re:Where's Sarah Palin by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    You're right. The Chinese will handle it better if we stay out of there and let them explore and drill instead. Which they will.

  4. The Gulf of Mexico is Dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Trusted reports indicate criminal activites by officials at the Department of Interior, Department of Homeland Security, and the Executive Office of the President Barak Hussain Obama.

    This is the simple reason for the breakdown of regulation regarding safty, operations, and communications.

    President Barak Hussain Obama and all of his appointed subordinates are guilty of Crimes Against Humanity.

    Let their heads roll upon the Capital Mall; Let their lifeless bodies be hung upside-down from street polls along the Capital Mall.

    May Hell welcome them, one and all. May Hell forgive them, one and all. For we the Living, will damn them and burn them, one and all.