Images show oil spill tripled in size in single day

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Images show oil spill tripled in size in single day

May 1, 2010 Cain Burdeau Holbrook Mohr

Excerpt:

"The slick nearly tripled in just a day or so, growing from a spill the size of Rhode Island to something closer to the size of Puerto Rico, according to images collected from mostly European satellites and analyzed by the University of Miami.

On Thursday, the size of the slick was nearly 3,000 square kilometres, but by the end of Friday, it had tripled to 9,900 square kilometres, said Hans Graber, executive director of the university's Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing.

?The spill and the spreading is getting so much faster and expanding much quicker than they estimated,? Graber told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Ian MacDonald, an oceanography professor at Florida State University, said his examination of coast guard charts and satellite images indicated that up to 34 million litres had already spilled by April 28.

?I hope I'm wrong. I hope there's less oil out there than that. But that's what I get when I apply the numbers,? he said."
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http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/803327

 

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Re: Images show oil spill tripled in size in single day

Impossible to give exact estimate on amount of oil leaking says Coast Guard commandant

by Associated Press
wwltv.com
Posted on May 1, 2010 at 3:12 PM

The commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard says it's impossible to give an exact estimate of how much oil is leaking from a sunken rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Adm. Thad Allen, who also is overseeing the national effort to contain the devastating spill, made the remarks Saturday afternoon during a teleconference.

One expert has said the spill's surface area has at least tripled in size in just a day or so.

Experts also have cautioned that if the spill continues growing unchecked, sea currents could suck the sheen down past the Florida Keys and then up the Eastern Seaboard.

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http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/Imp...ing-says-Coast-Guard-commandant-92590049.html

 

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Re: Images show oil spill tripled in size in single day

Gulf oil spill swiftly balloons, could move east

By CAIN BURDEAU and HOLBROOK MOHR Associated Press Writers ? 2010 The Associated Press

May 1, 2010, 4:34PM

Excerpt:

"The Florida Keys are home to the only living coral barrier reef in North America, and the third largest coral barrier reef in the world. About 84 percent of the nation's coral reefs are located in Florida, where hundreds of marine species live, breed and spawn.

"If it gets into the Keys, that would be devastating," said Duke University biologist Larry Crowder."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6985387.html

 

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Re: Images show oil spill tripled in size in single day

Tiny group has big impact on spill estimates

SkyTruth, with one paid staffer and a one-room office, has caused officials to backtrack and revise what they say about the size of the gulf disaster.

By Julie Cart, Los Angeles Times
May 1, 2010 | 5:18 p.m.

A tiny nonprofit group with one paid staffer in a one-room office in a small West Virginia town has been causing U.S. officials and oil company executives to backtrack and revise their estimates of the size and flow of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

SkyTruth first analyzed satellite and radar data on the spill shortly after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank after a fire April 22. It challenged initial estimates that 1,000 barrels of oil were gushing daily from the wellhead nearly a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans. Federal officials and BP quickly revised the estimated daily rate to 5,000 barrels.

Saturday, the group updated its analysis to estimate that the slick contained more than 11.1 million gallons of oil, which would make it the largest oil spill in American history. John Amos, the group's president, also revised the estimate of the rate of oil leaking to 25,000 barrels a day, saying it was a "rock bottom" figure. There are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil.

Oceanographer Ian MacDonald of Florida State University had a slightly smaller estimate, saying on Saturday that the spill was 10 million gallons of crude oil.
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More at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-measure-20100502,0,1279704.story