Scientists say more Gulf oil flowing than thought- New oil flow estimate: Gulf nation's worst spill

Scientists say more Gulf oil flowing than thought

news.yahoo.com

Scientists studying the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico now say it's leaking at least twice as much oil and possibly five times as much as original estimates.

U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt is the leader of a team put together to try to figure out how much oil is coming from the well.

She says results are preliminary but two teams using different methods determined the well is leaking at least 504,000 gallons a day. One team said it might be leaking as much as 798,000 gallons and another said that number might be closer to a million gallons.

(visit the link for the full news article)

And they updated the article now:

New oil flow estimate: Gulf nation's worst spill

New oil flow estimates by scientists studying the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico would make leak the worst in the nation's history, far bigger than 11 million gallons that spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster. U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt says the results are preliminary, but two teams using different methods determined the well that exploded April 20 and sank two days later has spilled between 17 and 39 million gallons.

[edit on 27-5-2010 by Portugoal]

[edit on 27-5-2010 by Portugoal]

[edit on 27-5-2010 by Portugoal]

I know there are way too many threads on this topic, but we can add this to the proof that's piling up that says that BP and the government lied to the world.

BP and the Coast Guard had said since then that about 210,000 gallons a day was flowing.

When it could be closer to a million gallons? That's a pretty big difference.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow! Thanks for posting this. I think that just about all of us on ATS have known that those numbers are bigger, but it is just AWESOME to have the scientists back that up.

The article says at least 504,000 gallons per day..so:

504,000 X 37 days= 18,648,00 gallons spilled..or, another way to look at it is:

504,000 X 37 days= Holy $%@^ the Gulf is dead!

reply to post by lasertaglover


They just updated the article.

New oil flow estimate: Gulf nation's worst spill

New oil flow estimates by scientists studying the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico would make leak the worst in the nation's history, far bigger than 11 million gallons that spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster. U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt says the results are preliminary, but two teams using different methods determined the well that exploded April 20 and sank two days later has spilled between 17 and 39 million gallons.

That kind of blows you 18 million gallons calculation out of the water.

And another update:
Scientists: Gulf spill now far bigger than Valdez

Scientists say the Gulf of Mexico spill has now leaked far more oil than the Exxon Valdez disaster — maybe even three-and-a-half times as much.

That makes the Gulf spill by far the worst in U.S. history.

U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt said Thursday that a government task force estimates that anywhere from 500,000 gallons to a million gallons a day has been leaking. BP and the Coast Guard had put the flow at about 210,000 gallons per day.

The new government estimate means at least 19 million gallons and maybe as much as 39 million gallons have leaked in the five weeks since an oil rig exploded and sank. Exxon Valdez spilled about 11 million gallons.

BP is trying to plug the leak and says it has siphoned off about 924,000 gallons.

I would take the bigger 700K number and do the math on that, for that is likely a more reasonable number.

When I personally think it can be well over a million gallons a day or at least a million.

BP doesn't have the money for all of this damage. They are in big trouble....and so are we...



[edit on 27-5-2010 by Quickfix]

reply to post by Portugoal


I was simply using the math from your posted link as an example. I personally think that they are not calculating all of the different leaks, and if they did, that the total would exceed 2 million gallons per day.

Ate logo

reply to post by lasertaglover


Ye I know but it's scary to think that there could be a 20 million gallon differential between estimates. Your 18 million gallon estimate would be considered conservative, according to the article.

My biggest problem with this report is the range. A half million barrels one way or the other is a tremendous difference. BP Execs should be dipped in this oil and left on the marshes to rot.

The impact is going to hurt everything, even if it is stopped today (which I don't believe either). When you start adding up the fishing jobs, the shipping jobs from fishing, the tourism industry, and everything else along the Gulf Coast, it gets really scary!

Voce acha que e 'o fim do mundo'?

reply to post by lasertaglover


Due to T&C I'll answer in English. It's definetly bad for the region and a lot of strange things have been happening around the world, but I don't think this spill is the end of the world.

So now that scientists have figured out how big the spill is, do you think they'll try to figure out how to contain it?

Heres a genuine question here but how is the pressure of the oilspill still so high? Surely the length of time + oil leaked = less pressure therefore making it easier to control?
Im surely not missing the point here?

Also one more question, could the current situation regarding earthquakes and volcanos have something to do with it?
Could something be actually squeezing it out? tectonic plates etc? Gravitational effects? The moon effects the tides?

Also all of this oil that has leaked will have been replaced by sea water. Different density totally. I would have to say i would imagine a massive sea floor collapse or earthquake could possibly happen in the area due to the weakening.

reply to post by lasertaglover


Well, the Ixtoc I gushed 30,000 bpd for the better part of nine months, yet the Gulf didn't die...

How can that be?

Originally posted by IgnoranceIsntBlisss
reply to post by lasertaglover

 

Well, the Ixtoc I gushed 30,000 bpd for the better part of nine months, yet the Gulf didn't die...

How can that be?

30k barrels per day was the high end estimate for that spill and totaled about 9 million barrels over 9 months. We may already have 21 million barrels leaked into the Gulf in the last month.

reply to post by mythatsabigprobe


worst in history?
I think that the US may be adding to the collection because i think that if its gospel that they are expectiong an increase of hurricanes and tornados, then imagine the devastation when oil and the dispersants are thrown into the equation? Everything is effected. Literally.
I came across this link, different disaster but could the outcome be the same?
www.independent.co.uk...

reply to post by mythatsabigprobe


No, that's 39 million gallons, for the Deepwater Horizon. The Ixtoc was over 3 million barrels. The team in the article estimate it was flowing at less than the Ixtoc, so how could it possibly already be more?