X
Innovation

How scientists are keeping their eyes on the oil spill

Scientists are dropping sensors into the Gulf to predict where the oil will spread. Other researchers are finding evidence of oil hiding in underwater plumes.
Written by Boonsri Dickinson, Contributing Editor

Hearing about the repeated failed attempts by BP officials to plug the pipe is frustrating. It is unclear when a killer idea will stop oil from gushing out uncontrollably. As the oil makes its way to Florida beaches, it's heart breaking to see this ecological catastrophe unfold. 

The oil on the surface doesn't tell the whole story — oil is likely lingering out of sight in underwater plumes.

University of Miami's oceanographer Lynn Shay is flying around the Gulf in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's hurricane hunter airplane, dropping sensors into the water that would gather temperature and current data and transmit the information back through radio.

Researchers are hunting for evidence of underwater plumes. University of Georgia's Samantha Joye is on a research boat and is blogging about her hunt for oil underneath the surface:

Today we’ve been trying to trace the deepwater plume as close as possible to the leaking wellhead.  Finally, after about 14 hours of searching and 5 unsuccessful CTD casts, we closed in on the source of the plume.  After a very long day, we finally have this feature well constrained.  We found more visible oil in the deepwater today – at different sites from yesterday – which increases our confidence in this finding.

In Time magazine, Bryan Walsh writes about his journey with the Environmental Defense Fund's Angelina Freeman. While on a boat trip, Walsh says Freeman paused to take samples of the oil and noted the location of collection. The samples would later be sent to a lab to keep tabs on the oil spill.

Other researchers are using computer power to predict the spread of the oil. North Carolina State University's oceanographer Ruoying He is modeling the ocean currents using the same ocean-circulation forecast models used by NOAA for hurricane forecasts. Nature reports:

"Information from only the surface might be misleading," He says. Yonggang Liu, a physical oceanographer at the University of South Florida in St Petersburg, agrees that the observations are sparse. "We need more data," he says. "Without it, our models are very limited."

There's a lot of pressure to stop the oil, so it's understandable that various rushed projects are cropping up. Government officials approved a plan to build 45 miles of artificial berm. But scientists doubt it will work for countless reasons. With an extreme hurricane season on the way, it's doubtful this berm would survive.

Quick fixes might not be the best way to deal with the disaster. BP should tap the brain power of the nation's best scientists to deal with this extreme engineering challenge. It's not just their problem. It's our problem.

Now, what would happen if the oil kept spewing out?

Photo: NASA

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

Editorial standards