The Sanchi disaster is even worse than many initially expected, according to a chilling new report published by Britain’s National Oceanography Centre that shows the ship’s cargo – the equivalent of nearly 1 million barrels of ultra-light crude, plus its own fuel – snaking across the East China Sea into the northern Pacific, according to a series of visualizations created by Reuters.

The Panama-registered vessel burst into flames after colliding with a cargo ship off the east coast of China while on its way to South Korea. The disaster, which took place in the East China Sea, is the worst oil spill since Exxon Valdez.

The Sanchi tanker and a cargo ship collided 260km (160 miles) off Shanghai on Jan. 6. Afterward, the tanker – which burned for a weekbefore exploding and sinking – then drifted south-east towards Japan.

At the time, the Iranian press reported that all 32 crew members – 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis – died in the accident. The tanker was carrying 136,000 tonnes of ultra-light crude. The always-credible Chinese media claimed that no oil slick had formed.

Authorities have had trouble pinning down how big the spill is, as it changes by the day amid strong ocean currents. But concerns are growing about the potential impact to key fishing grounds and sensitive marine ecosystems off Japan and South Korea, which lie in the projected path of the oil, according to Britain’s National Oceanography Centre.

“An updated emergency ocean model simulation shows that waters polluted by the sinking Sanchi oil tanker could reach Japan within a month,” the center said a report posted on Jan. 16. “The revised simulations suggest that pollution from the spill may be distributed much further and faster than previously thought, and that larger areas of the coast may be impacted.”

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