{"id":828,"date":"2014-10-29T09:54:41","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T13:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=828"},"modified":"2014-10-29T09:54:41","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T13:54:41","slug":"fallout-plume-of-submerged-oil-from-deepwater-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=828","title":{"rendered":"Fallout plume of submerged oil from Deepwater Horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/early\/2014\/10\/23\/1414873111\">Fallout plume of submerged oil from Deepwater Horizon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"border-style: none; border-color: initial; outline-style: none; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif !important; line-height: inherit; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px 0px 2px 0px; color: #202020; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;\">Abstract<\/h2>\n<p id=\"p-5\" style=\"outline-style: none; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; margin: 15px 0px 15px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">The sinking of the\u00a0<em style=\"outline-style: none; font-weight: inherit; font-style: italic; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">Deepwater Horizon<\/em>\u00a0in the Gulf of Mexico led to uncontrolled emission of oil to the ocean, with an official government estimate of \u223c5.0 million barrels released. Among the pressing uncertainties surrounding this event is the fate of \u223c2 million barrels of submerged oil thought to have been trapped in deep-ocean intrusion layers at depths of \u223c1,000\u20131,300 m. Here we use chemical distributions of hydrocarbons in &gt;3,000 sediment samples from 534 locations to describe a footprint of oil deposited on the deep-ocean floor. Using a recalcitrant biomarker of crude oil, 17\u03b1(H),21\u03b2(H)-hopane (hopane), we have identified a 3,200-km<sup style=\"outline-style: none; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0.85em; font-family: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; top: -0.6em; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">2<\/sup>\u00a0region around the Macondo Well contaminated by \u223c1.8 \u00b1 1.0 \u00d7 10<sup style=\"outline-style: none; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0.85em; font-family: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; top: -0.6em; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">6<\/sup>\u00a0g of excess hopane. Based on spatial, chemical, oceanographic, and mass balance considerations, we calculate that this contamination represents 4\u201331% of the oil sequestered in the deep ocean. The pattern of contamination points to deep-ocean intrusion layers as the source and is most consistent with dual modes of deposition: a \u201cbathtub ring\u201d formed from an oil-rich layer of water impinging laterally upon the continental slope (at a depth of \u223c900\u20131,300 m) and a higher-flux \u201cfallout plume\u201d where suspended oil particles sank to underlying sediment (at a depth of \u223c1,300\u20131,700 m). We also suggest that a significant quantity of oil was deposited on the ocean floor outside this area but so far has evaded detection because of its heterogeneous spatial distribution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-style: none; font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; padding: 0px; margin: 15px 0px 15px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fallout plume of submerged oil from Deepwater Horizon. Abstract The sinking of the\u00a0Deepwater Horizon\u00a0in the Gulf of Mexico led to uncontrolled emission of oil to the ocean, with an official government estimate of \u223c5.0 million barrels released. Among the pressing uncertainties surrounding this event is the fate of \u223c2 million barrels of submerged oil thought [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[393,493,591],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-macondo-well","tag-oil-pollution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}