Oil spills - anyone remember 'Ixtoc 1'?

[addyguy]

Interest in the unfolding disaster in the Gulf got me researching large oil spills. Second-largest one in history was aslo in the Gulf:

"The second-largest spill on record hit Texas hard. Ixtoc I: On June 3, 1979, the well suffered a blowout and is recognized as the second largest oil spill in history. Approximately an average of ten thousand to thirty thousand barrels per day were discharged into the Gulf until it was finally capped on March 23, 1980 (294 days, or almost 10 months).

The only bigger spill was Hussein in the 1991 Gulf War. Arabian Gulf Spills – About 900 million barrels of oil spilled into the Arabian Gulf as the Iraqi army destroyed tankers, oil terminals, and oil wells in Kuwait during the Gulf war in January 1991, resulting in one of the largest oil spill disasters ever.

Ixtoc I leaked 3.4 million barrels from June 3, 1979 to March 23, 1980, when it was finally capped. I was sentient at the time and remember what it did to South Padre - tar balls for years. We cleaned it up and the Mexican government refused to help mitigate the costs."

Anyone on here in Texas then and remember this?

I wonder if this one will be worse, if it takes that long to cap?

 

[UNC017]

Yes, I remember IXTOC-1, although the name I usually associate with it is SEDCO. What a mess.

I remember being at a University of Texas vs. Rice football game around then, and the infamous Rice Marching Owl Band (aka the MOB) used the spill as a theme for their halftime show. The whole band came out dressed as tar balls... wearing black plastic garbage bags. The formed the shape of an oil derrick on the field and then the "tar balls" would run up the center of the derrick and "spill" out the top.

 

[JHZR2]

I remember going to Myrtle Beach, SC in the early 1980s and seeing tar on some of the seashells. Wonder if it was related somehow... I can't recall seeing a dirty shell like that (still have a bunch of them) in a long time now...

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I remember going to Myrtle Beach, SC in the early 1980s and seeing tar on some of the seashells. Wonder if it was related somehow... I can't recall seeing a dirty shell like that (still have a bunch of them) in a long time now...

I expect that we'll be seeing a few more of those in the relatively near future. . .

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum

I remember being at a University of Texas vs. Rice football game around then, and the infamous Rice Marching Owl Band (aka the MOB) used the spill as a theme for their halftime show. The whole band came out dressed as tar balls... wearing black plastic garbage bags. The formed the shape of an oil derrick on the field and then the "tar balls" would run up the center of the derrick and "spill" out the top.


That sounds AWESOME!!!!

 

[addyguy]

Yeah, that does sound kind of neat.....

It will be interesting to see if this spill eclipses that one....

 

[UNC017]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum

The whole band came out dressed as tar balls... wearing black plastic garbage bags. The formed the shape of an oil derrick on the field and then the "tar balls" would run up the center of the derrick and "spill" out the top.


That sounds AWESOME!!!!


Yeah, the MOB was legendary in the old Southwest Conference. They didn't actually march- they ran around the field screaming like maniacs and then snapped into various formations that went with a story a narrator would tell over the PA. And of course they would play songs to go with it all, and the whole story would be one enormous joke at the expense of someone (in this case, SEDCO drilling which was affiliated with a well-known Texas politician at the time). Often it was at the expense of the opposing university. There's a story, possibly legend, that they played "Where O Where has my Little Dog Gone" after the Texas A&M mascot (a border collie called Reveille) died during football season one year. Supposedly that earned the band bus a police escort out of town. If its not true, it sure could have been.

 

[L_Sludger]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Supposedly that earned the band bus a police escort out of town. If its not true, it sure could have been.
And foolish me thought that the Georgia vs. Tech rivalry was something.