BP cautions against bid to stop oil leak

Yes. How dare someone come in with the fact that it does not matter if the pressure is a million pounds per square inch - the the pressure of the substance ejecting out of the hole with more pressure behind it is two million pounds per square inch.

How dare I mess up your world with logic.

If you'd like, you might be able to find a resevoir pressure map around. They exist, however I do not know if they are public data in theses States. What I can tell you from poking around, is that these pools are highly pressurized.

To give another example of a highly pressurized area - in Iran there are pools that have so much pressure they cannot be drilled under modern technology. A rig that drill into them literally get blown into the air and land with all their drill sting several miles away.

If the pressure in the "atmosphere" around the wellbore is less than the pressure in the wellbore - regardless of what the "atmosphere" is, in this case H2O - then the substance comes to the surface and sometimes if there is enough pressure behind it with more pushing it continues to come.

[edit on 2010/5/6 by Aeons]

A pretty good explanation here:

The Oil Drum

If you read down to the comments, you'll see that someone has noted that a simliar formation is at 7 times the pressure at the surface. The surface of the ocean floor.

5000 feet of water ontop of 18000 feet of ground. Then you factor in temperature (hot).....

[edit on 2010/5/6 by Aeons]