Summary of the Gulf oil spill
It has been a rough decade for the planet, and the latest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico isn’t helping things. Let’s get you up to speed about this massive oil spill which is threatening to be worse than the Exxon Valdez in 1989.
- Cause: a rig owned by BP called the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, causing three leaks in the well a mile below on the ocean floor.
- It may take months to cap the spill.
- Several states will be affected (Alabama, Mississippi, Florida), but Louisiana appears to be in the worst position.
- Louisiana’s shrimping industry will suffer the biggest impact, and shrimpers have been allowed out early to catch what they can before it gets worse.
- Winds are pushing the oil toward the Mississippi Delta which will affect wildlife of all kinds (see map for projected trajectories).
- Minimal cleanup efforts include setting the heavily concentrated oil slicks on fire, then hauling away the remaining tar balls.
Credit: NOAA
Read on:
CBSNews.com – Oil Spill Could Equal Damage from Exxon Valdez
NOAA.gov – excellent resource of fact sheet about the incident
Yahoo! News – Massive oil spill in Gulf of Mexico heads to shore
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