Not to sound like I know everything here, but there are hundreds of places around the world on the sea floor where oil seeps into the ocean every day. A lot of the heavier crude oil doesn't float, but rather, settles on the ocean floor. the lighter stuff floats up. If you ever do any ocean sailing, you'll come across this from time to time. It's not like punching a hole into a pressurized pocket under the surface of the seafloor with a drill though, where it all comes up at once. The natural process takes years to do what this leak will do in a day. It's just the acute nature of the "man-made" leak that causes the problem.
At a mile deep, the ocean pressure will keep the heavier crude on the Gulf floor, All the weight of water on top of it is really quite tremendous, so what you see coming up to the surface is just the tip of the iceberg. The lighter weight oil. In Calm waters, a gallon of oil can cover over a half acre. The stuff on the bottom is like the the La Brea Tar Pits. Anyways, BP can't push/force any of the light crude to the bottom to hide it, still that's where the majority of the oil from this leak will go. Yeah,.. It will kill whatever it covers over.
snip to save space
No you don't sound arrogant and like you know everything....you're just stating the truth as you know it, and because of your previous assignments you do know. I've studied biology and also enough Earth Science and ecology in general to understand that some of the surface stuff will get caught in currents and migrate eventually up the east coast. Maybe the effects will be less.....but there are a whole lot of young fish fry who will starve because the oil has or will destroy their ability to grow in some way.
And there is another hazard. There are plenty of bacteria and some other plankton which will "eat" the oil.....BUT in order to do that they will use plenty of oxygen, so what will the fish grab with their gills? And the more these oil consuming bacteria eat...the more they grow and the more oxygen they'll take out of the water.....so how far do you want to carry this out?
I wish RumRunner was around - - he had an amazing grasp of how the earth worked. He had a kind of "reverence" for the planet....and understood how it could and would renew itself. He has a saying....(I'm paraphrasing here) " the planet has the ability to clean itself up....all of it (the planet) but it's not a good idea to sh!t in your dishwasher! Did we just do that?
Corporatism at it's best/worst whichever way your mind thinks.
The U.S. government threatened to remove BP from efforts to seal a blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico if it doesn't do enough to stop the leak, though it acknowledged only the company and the oil industry have the know-how to halt the deepwater spill.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Sunday Washington is frustrated and angry that BP Plc missed "deadline after deadline" in its efforts to seal the well more than a month after an oil rig explosion triggered the disaster.
"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading. We are 33 days into this effort and deadline after deadline has been missed," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said after visiting BP's U.S. headquarters in Houston.
"If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately," he told reporters as the administration maintained its hard line.
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krys
snip to save space
No you don't sound arrogant and like you know everything....you're just stating the truth as you know it, and because of your previous assignments you do know. I've studied biology and also enough Earth Science and ecology in general to understand that some of the surface stuff will get caught in currents and migrate eventually up the east coast. Maybe the effects will be less.....but there are a whole lot of young fish fry who will starve because the oil has or will destroy their ability to grow in some way.
And there is another hazard. There are plenty of bacteria and some other plankton which will "eat" the oil.....BUT in order to do that they will use plenty of oxygen, so what will the fish grab with their gills? And the more these oil consuming bacteria eat...the more they grow and the more oxygen they'll take out of the water.....so how far do you want to carry this out?
I wish RumRunner was around - - he had an amazing grasp of how the earth worked. He had a kind of "reverence" for the planet....and understood how it could and would renew itself. He has a saying....(I'm paraphrasing here) " the planet has the ability to clean itself up....all of it (the planet) but it's not a good idea to sh!t in your dishwasher! Did we just do that?
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RumRunner
Well I'd discuss it on a phone call but not here - too many experts on everything here.
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Twinky
Rummie, you're back! (Now behave yourself this time! Chill out with a beer.)
How much was BP taking out every day anyway? And it's hugely more than that, that's escaping.
It's a sort of undersea Chernobyl.
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soul searcher
Looks like it's worse than we thought.
Rumrunner, come on in and chat, man. I want to hear what you have to say.
I ain't no expert on nuthin' (except pain and sorrow, ha-ha!).
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Bolshevik
It's all how you look at it . . . big accident . . . more legislation . . . more jobs.
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bulwinkl
Corporatism at it's best/worst whichever way your mind thinks.
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Gen-2
Here we are seeing the tip of the iceberg. Stike up the band! Batten down the lifeboats, we're going in!
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year2027
God first
thanks soul searcher
would be better drill now or hold off?
with love and a holy kiss Roy
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soul searcher
Don't know, Roy. The older I get, the less I'm sure of.
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year2027
God first
thanks soul searcher
thank you
with love and a holy kiss Roy
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