What caused the Gulf oil spill 2010?
What caused the Gulf oil spill 2010?
What caused the Gulf oil spill 2010?
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also called Gulf of Mexico oil spill, largest marine oil spill in history, caused by an April 20, 2010, explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig—located in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 41 miles (66 km) off the coast of Louisiana—and its subsequent sinking on April 22.
How did BP clean up the oil spill?
In the case of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, clean-up workers treated the oil with over 1.4 million gallons of various chemical dispersants. Typically such large amounts are sprayed over the open ocean from an airplane or helicopter. It’s possible that life in the deep sea was exposed to the dispersant-oil mixture.
What major oil spill happened in 2010?
Deepwater Horizon
On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations.
Who was responsible for the 2010 Gulf oil spill?
BP
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said BP was mostly to blame for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster, which killed 11 people and spewed oil into the water for 87 days. Barbier attributed 67% of the fault to BP, 30% to Transocean, which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and 3% to Halliburton, the cement contractor.
How can an oil spill be cleaned up?
Types Of Oil Spills Clean-Up Methods
- Using Oil Booms.
- Using Skimmers.
- Using Sorbents.
- Burning In-situ.
- Using Dispersants.
- Hot Water and High-Pressure Washing.
- Using Manual Labour.
- Bioremediation.
How many animals died in the BP oil spill?
An estimated 4,900–7,600 large juvenile and adult sea turtles and between 56,000–166,000 small juvenile sea turtles were killed by the spill. Furthermore, an estimated 35,000 hatchlings were lost due to the effects of the spill and associated clean-up activities on sea turtle nesting beaches.
How do oil spills affect dolphins?
We learned that dolphins in Barataria Bay and Mississippi Sound, which were exposed to oil, suffered significant health effects. These effects included lung disease from inhalation and aspiration of oil, impaired stress response, and compromised immune function. They may have led to increased infection and disease.
What were some impacts of the oil spill in 2010?
Scientists estimate that as many as 167,000 sea turtles of all ages were killed during the disaster. In 2010, the once-remarkable recovery of the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle halted abruptly.
How is the dispersant used in the Gulf of Mexico spill?
While the dispersant helps expose more of the oil to bacteria and waves which help to break it down, it also makes the oil more available to wildlife. One 2012 study showed that the combination of oil and the dispersant Corexit is 3 to 52-times more toxic to rotifers (microscopic animals) than oil by itself.
How did they get the oil out of the Gulf of Mexico?
About 5 to 6 percent of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was removed by controlled burning. A C-130 Hercules from the Air Force Reserve Command deploys dispersant into the Gulf of Mexico May 5, 2010, as part of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill response effort.
What kind of animals were affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill?
Pictures of pelicans, sea turtles, and other Gulf of Mexico wildlife struggling in oil were among some of the most disturbing images of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in 2010. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, thousands of “visibly” oiled animals (pdf) —which include birds, sea turtles,…
What kind of gas is leaking from the BP oil spill?
Natural gas is also spilling out of the pipe, along with the oil. On May 11, BP confirmed that the broken pipe began spilling natural gas into the sea, but noted that a leak of oil and gas might be easier to fix than a pure oil leak, ABC News reported.