Mother Of All Gushers Could Kill Earth's Oceans

Originally posted by kingofmd
Does anyone else wonder how the oil has been able to maintain such a high pressure for "millions and millions" of years, beings that rock is porous?

No. Rock is not as "porous" as you may think . There is air in it but no "holes" that would let something pass trough.

[edit on 3-5-2010 by ickylevel]

Originally posted by ickylevel

Originally posted by kingofmd
Does anyone else wonder how the oil has been able to maintain such a high pressure for "millions and millions" of years, beings that rock is porous?

No. Rock is not as "porous" as you may think . There is air in it but no "holes" that would let something pass trough.

[edit on 3-5-2010 by ickylevel]

Even if it was, there's six miles of it trapping the oil in place, underneath a mile of ocean water. There's no way the oil would have ever seen the day of light if it weren't for us...

Here we go on the cover your a## department.

BP is up the creek without a large vaccum.
blog.al.com...

They already have their legal team out trying to buy off people from suing them.

On another note. I believe the Gulf Coast to be very worrisome, but maybe everyone should take a look also at the ongoing disaster in Northern Alberta at the Tar sands project. Daily they spew oil tailings into the environment and have literally destroyed wildlife habit for years on end....

All in the name of Greed and Oil!
There are so many better choices available for powering us.

Lets use this as a time to move ahead from the Oil Monopoly

Have faith in our humanity...

While we as humans arent smart enough to work together and solve simple problems... such as moving away from Oil Consumption... We are capable of figuring out a way to close "the leak".

If we all go around ranting "This is the END this is the END, the Bible says so!" Then surely it will happen. We cant just warp 2000 year old words to fit the need. If you throw enough rocks at something your bound to hit it sometime.

Could it Destroy the Earth? Possibly... Should we be drilling for Oil? Maybe, If we dont have technology to aid our current human needs... but WE DO! So Should we be drilling? No.

This is the kind of mess that most of us hate...

Having to sit back and watch our world decline because someone somewhere up high decided he wants to get paid for doing nothing... and when his STUFF breaks he immediately trys to pay people off to fix it for him. Only the lower class/middle class truly understand what it means to work hard and then turn around and truly appreciate the money that is given to them. Letting Rich guys thrive the way they do is the same as spoling a baby... they are parasites growing up and they become even bigger parasites as they are older.

**The only difference is that babies are pure at heart because they dont know that what they are doing is parasitic, only necessary for their survival up until they can take care of themselves**

Maybe this will be a lesson for humanity to be more careful, and not take advantage of the little things... but I have a feeling all that this Oil Spill will bring about is proof that you can throw money at any problem.

[edit on 3-5-2010 by rjmelter]

Originally posted by Northwarden
I came across this last night; this thread has an oceanic current chart to investigate where the slicked water will go. It looks like south, along South America. add - after circulating awhile in the Gulf.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Good reference, Northwarden, but I don't see the currents going south. Instead, I see them going north up along the eastern seaboard and across to the British isles.

Re: the chart that The Redneck posted:

NOAA:


see the arrow pointing around Florida?

You are exactly right! This is the Gulf stream and being on the East Coast of Canada we know exactly how the Gulf Stream works.

Just look at the paths most Atlantic Hurricanes take. So enjoy your lobster while you can....

Originally posted by ickylevel

Originally posted by kingofmd
Does anyone else wonder how the oil has been able to maintain such a high pressure for "millions and millions" of years, beings that rock is porous?

No. Rock is not as "porous" as you may think . There is air in it but no "holes" that would let something pass trough.

[edit on 3-5-2010 by ickylevel]

The sedimentary rock layers that oil is covered by is quite porous. My point is not that the oil would have 'leeched' out on it's own, but that maybe we should question geology's uniformitarian assumption that oil/sedementary layers formed over millions of years. Oil wells should have no pressure beings that porous rock is NOT airtight, that is unless they aren't as old as we are educated to believe

there was another headline this morning
Another week at least of unabated Gulf oil geyser

BP PLC was preparing a system never tried before at such depths to siphon away the geyser of crude from a blown-out well a mile under Gulf of Mexico waters. However, the plan to lower 74-ton, concrete-and-metal boxes being built to capture the oil and siphon it to a barge waiting at the surface will need at least another six to eight days to get it in place.

In the story they go on to say

the flow of oil should have been stopped by a blowout preventer, but the mechanism failed. Efforts to remotely activate it continue to prove fruitless, weather has hampered plans to burn the oil and is making booms all along the coast ineffective.

Here's another quick vid so you can see what I'm talking about

So if the christmas tree (Valves) are intact there is some hope of shutting her in... the problem lies it getting to those valves a mile deep where no human diver can go...
Link to story

Maybe that's why Obama calls it 'unprecedented' because they know it cannot be stopped and he keeps using this word to prepare everyone for really bad news? Just a thought.

My heart goes out to all the fishermen on the south east coast, spending all their money on their boats, then having this happen.

Whats the betting the Kracken was behind this!

You'd think the Gulf would contain the Oil (for better or worse environmentally), but the Miss River and over outlet channels affect the flow being predominantly the only rivers coming out of the Central US from the Plains and Rockies, that the rivers themselves overpower the Gulfs current to send the current back into the Atlantic.

Greetings hawkiye,

70,000 psi is beyond comprehension - like explosive power. A few questions from a non-engineer, if I may.

-- How do they know that the remnants of the 5 ft diameter pipe, protruding out of the ocean floor are still intact? Wouldn't 70,000 psi vaporize all the pipe remnants where it comes out of the ocean floor?

-- Can submersibles hook up 5000 foot chains to the sunken rig to surface-pull it free of the hole? Are there any chains strong enough?

-- According to Reuters a relief well may go in not earlier than 90 days. How do they plan to deal with 70,000 psi once the relief pipe breaks through into the oil reservoir? How do they know the relief hole won't blow all to hell?

-- Explosives to stopper the hole back up. Well, ok, they detonate explosives, ocean floor material (rock and debris) fill so much of the 5 ft diameter hole. Wouldn't 70,000 psi blast all that debris and rock back out of the hole and launch it into the stratosphere?

-- Using a submersible, How do you cap 70,000 psi, assuming the 5 ft diam. pipe is still intact?

This mess is probably good news to [obama's boss, and future senator] Rahm Emanuel, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."

every human should sue BP for a billion bucks over this

oh man, we really need ET help; we can't do it by ourselves obviously

I posted this back on page 6 but I guess some people were taking up space calling each other butt heads that it was probably missed.
There is a micro organism that lives on oil ("multi-plasmid hydrocarbon-degrading pseudomonas,") that can possibly be used in the clean up process. It may be worth looking into, just have them eat the oil out of the water. I know it sounds crazy but did you know that some of the laundry detergent we use to clean are clothes are actually microbes. Living organisms that feed on the dirt rapidly than die off.
As far as stopping the leak I doubt a cap will work, the high pressure of the oil stream will eventually erode the soil and sediment on the ocean floor around the cap. Not to mention that the sea floor is not a flat surface to seal too.
I think the drilling of a second hole in close proximity to the existing well line down into the bed rock and trying to collapse the well line by explosives or something that will produce enough force to do the job has the most promise for success.
Lets pray they get this mess under control soon, but it looks like do to the extreme depth of the ocean and the water pressures involved this will be going on for months to come and the clean up will be enormous.

www.time.com...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.absoluteastronomy.com...

reply to post by Adonsa


I think I can answer your questions...

-- How do they know that the remnants of the 5 ft diameter pipe, protruding out of the ocean floor are still intact? Wouldn't 70,000 psi vaporize all the pipe remnants where it comes out of the ocean floor?

No the valves are open so the flow is straight though, no pressure against them... how they know is they have cameras on those little ROV's

-- Can submersibles hook up 5000 foot chains to the sunken rig to surface-pull it free of the hole? Are there any chains strong enough?

The ROV's don't have the muscle but they can attach cables and a surface vessel move the wreckage...

-- Explosives to stopper the hole back up. Well, ok, they detonate explosives, ocean floor material (rock and debris) fill so much of the 5 ft diameter hole. Wouldn't 70,000 psi blast all that debris and rock back out of the hole and launch it into the stratosphere?

With the outflow anything that comes near the opening is just going to get blown out of the way... and setting off an explosive might just open the hole larger...

-- Using a submersible, How do you cap 70,000 psi, assuming the 5 ft diam. pipe is still intact?

if the Christmas tree is intact they can use a ROV to simply turn the valve see my post above... if not they will use those ROV's to guide the cap into the right position

I have just now invited your president to call for European
surface-oil-sucking ships with capacities each of e.g. 640 m3/h =
15´000 m3/day (like the German NEUWERK) and even bigger Dutch
ones.
At the same time I have asked my chancellor to make that same
offer from her side.
Even if the crossing of the ocean takes 3 - 4 days, the dispatch
of these ships in my opinion are more than justified, as we are
dealing here with an international crisis.

To match the VALDEZ oil spill this leak will have to spill during
some 60 days at 800 to/day.

The capacity of each of the oil-suckers is actually a multiple of
the volume of the spill.

The Us should have ordered those ships at once. BP should have
asked for all available capacities the moment the first leak
appeared. It´s the f****** money again. Now they are going
to pay far more than if they had ordered all those ships in the
US and Europe.

Don´t dispair. I think the crisis is manageable, although the
pollution of the beaches might have been prevented through
faster reaction.

We have had several severe oil spills in Europe, one of
70'000 to, but do not hear much about them any more.
Nature itself has a healing effect.

I am going to stick my neck out and say that the oceans of the world will not be "killed". Mother Nature is adept at taking a punch, far more than we humans.

Ixtoc 1: Approximately an average of ten thousand to thirty thousand barrels per day were discharged into the Gulf until it was finally capped on March 23, 1980. Prevailing currents carried the oil towards the Texas coastline. The US government had two months to prepare booms to protect major inlets. Mexico rejected US requests to be compensated for cleanup costs.

en.wikipedia.org...

For you fear mongering types. I believe the current spill is only 5,000 gallons per day. OMG soon it will be rain cats and dogs and gays will become straight and [SNIP] will want to wear dress's. LMFAO

Mod Edit: Removed unnecessary slur.

[edit on 4-5-2010 by Gemwolf]

Time for a little math.

Assuming, as the article states, it takes one quart of oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water "toxic:"

There are about 360,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of water in the oceans. That would take 1,440,000,000,000,000 quarts of oil to make it all "toxic." That's 8,571,428,570,000 barrels of oil. Assuming the well is leaking 25,000 barrels a day, it would take 342,857,143 days to leak that much oil. That's 939,335 years.