BP / Gulf Oil Spill – Slick Getting Bigger?
The COSMO-SkyMed radar image taken yesterday is somewhat ominous – it shows nearly all of the slick from the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and at 4,922 square miles (12,748 km2) it’s significantly larger than it appeared on May 13:
COSMO-SkyMed radar satellite image, May 14, 2010. Image courtesy CSTARS.
And we think we’ve discovered an unrelated leak from a nearby platform that was installed back in 1984. The MMS ID# for this platform is 23051 (look it up here). A small, dark slick appears next to this platform on radar satellite images from April 26, May 8, and May 13 as well as this May 14 image.
It’s not a major leak but it may indicate a chronic problem. Somebody should check that out to make sure it doesn’t get any worse.
John ,
An old quote I've had for years, now it seems I know why I kept it :
"Sound Beats Print … Pictures Beat Sound"
How big is it really? Well the truth continues to come out but most disturbing is that BP has always known the size from the video images. This is easy Mech E 101 stuff to calculate.
BP’s response is nothing but gross negligence. The argument from BP in the cited NYT article (see below) “We’re not going to take any extra efforts now to calculate flow there at this point. It’s not relevant to the response effort, and it might even detract from the response effort.” is what they have always said. In other words, we have a fire but it is not important to know how many homes are burning or how big the fire is – we have already sent some trucks to put it out. Top Hat is on the way. So is little cat A, B, C, D and finally Z.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/us/16oil.html?ref=business
Thanks for beating the drum and making people aware this is far bigger than the media thinks.
Rut'Row, me bruthas and sistas…
BP FAIL AGAIN
~~~"Officials say they successfully inserted a new pipe into the broken pipe spewing water into the Gulf. That new pipe started sending oil to a ship on the surface, but, just moments later, two remotely-operated robots crashed into each other and knocked the pipes partially apart.
The robots were taking photos of the operation."~NPR
http://n.pr/bxNPNS
BTW, diggin y'alls Oil Spill Tracker!
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
http://noladder.blogspot.com/
Any word on that possible second leak?
I too am interested about this possibility of a second leak.
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Alex and Rick – it's a small apparent leak from Platform 23051 – we see a small slick that seems to emanate from this platform on multiple radar satellite images that have been acquired since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig. When we get some time we'll collect all the images and publish a blog post on this, so keep checking here or follow us on Twitter.