Exxon Valdez-20 years later

[XCELERATIONRULES]

http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/

Check out the pdf file or the movie showing current conditions.
Amazing they are still finding heavy oil in test wells even today.

 

[Augustus]

Natural Oil Seepage at Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara, California (1970)
Aerial, surface, and underwater investigations reveal that natural seeps off Coal Oil Point, California, introduce about 50 to 70 barrels (approximately 8,000 to 11,000 liters) of oil per day into the Santa Barbara Channel. The resulting slicks are several hundred meters wide and are of the order of 10-5 centimeters thick; tarry masses within these slicks frequently wash ashore.

Natural seepage of crude oil into the marine environment (2003)
Abstract Recent global estimates of crude-oil seepage rates suggest that about 47% of crude oil currently entering the marine environment is from natural seeps, whereas 53% results from leaks and spills during the extraction, transportation, refining, storage, and utilization of petroleum. The amount of natural crude-oil seepage is currently estimated to be 600,000 metric tons per year, with a range of uncertainty of 200,000 to 2,000,000 metric tons per year. Thus, natural oil seeps may be the single most important source of oil that enters the ocean, exceeding each of the various sources of crude oil that enters the ocean through its exploitation by humankind.

Natural Petroleum Seeps Release Equivalent Of Up To 80 Exxon Valdez Oil Spills

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2009) — Twenty years ago, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez was exiting Alaska's Prince William Sound when it struck a reef in the middle of the night....

Now, imagine 8 to 80 times the amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez accident.

According to new research by scientists from UC Santa Barbara and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), that's how much oil has made its way into sediments offshore from petroleum seeps near Coal Oil Point in the Santa Barbara Channel.

 

[gtx510]

you gotta love all the tar on SB's beaches

 

[Loobed]

The entire southern California area is oil/coal/tar rich. They have the famous Labrea tar pits http://www.tarpits.org/

The oil in the ocean wants to come to the surface. I think we should help it out and install drill rigs out there. It might create a negative pressure and stop the oil from seeping to the surface on it's own and into the enviroment.

 

[Gary Allan]

Good idea. Call it a seepage prevention project feasibility study to clean up the environment. It's risky in terms of investment. It might take 10 years or more to see if it works.


Drill for the environment
Drill for all of us
EXXON- at the sign of the double cross

 

[jmac]

Seems like someone could make money just scooping up the surface tar slicks without bothering to drill at all.

 

[Shannow]

Good point Augustus.

Beats the heck out of lugging my used oil to the recycling place when I can tip it over the fence to the neighbour's place and tell him that it's natural (in other places)