Latest oil spills Stories

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have developed a method to use a specialized NASA 3-D imaging radar to characterize the oil in oil spills, such as the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The research can be used to improve response operations during future marine oil spills. Caltech graduate student Brent Minchew and JPL researchers Cathleen Jones and Ben Holt analyzed NASA radar imagery collected...

An experiment carried out on rodents exposed to fuel similar to that of the Prestige tanker oil spill – which took place nearly a decade ago – shows that inhalation of the fuel causes damage to genetic material. According to the study, led by the University of A Coruña, the results could be used in relation to people who carry out the industrial cleaning of coasts. On 19 November, it will be ten years since the sinking of the Prestige, which caused one of Spain's largest ecological...

Disaster Relief Supply has recently added Dawg Oil skimmers, socks, and booms to their online catalog. Destin, FL (PRWEB) July 18, 2012 Disaster Relief Supply, known as a dealer of emergency preparedness products like generators, chainsaws, and emergency food supplies, has just increased their inventory of disaster cleanup products by adding Dawg Oil spill products. The Oil Spill products added included skimmer, socks, and booms, and are all commercial strength cleaning products. Since...

When the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, 2010, residents feared that their Gulf of Mexico shores would be inundated with oil. And while many wetland habitats and wildlife were oiled during the three-month leak, the environmental damage to coastal Louisiana was less than many expected, in part because much of the crude never made it to the coast. Research by a trio of geoscientists, including the University of Pennsylvania’s Douglas Jerolmack, now offers an explanation...

Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.com Two-years ago today, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig made the Gulf of Mexico shorelines a hotbed for headlines at the time, and even today. Leased by BP, the rig operators were drilling at a depth of a little over 4,000-ft of water southeast of Houston when an explosion on the rig killed 11 crewmen, and started a fire that would ultimately be the Deepwater Horizon's demise. A group of scientists appointed by the government to calculate the size of the oil...

University of New Hampshire researchers have found that residents of Louisiana and Florida most acutely and directly affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster -- the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history -- said they have changed their views on other environmental issues as a result of the spill. "If disasters teach any lessons, then experience with the Gulf oil spill might be expected to alter opinions about the need for environmental protection. About one-fourth of our respondents...

Defying thousands of years of conventional wisdom, scientists are reporting that it is possible for water to float on oil, a discovery they say has important potential applications in cleaning up oil spills that threaten seashores and fisheries. Their report appears in ACS' journal Langmuir. Chi M. Phan and colleagues point out that the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle made an early attempt to explain flotation around 350 B.C. Today, most people know that less dense liquids float on...

CRESSKILL, N.J., March 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite promises of quick payments, it may be months if not years before plaintiffs associated with the BP Gulf Oil Spill receive compensation. The settlement covers lawsuits brought by more than 100,000 fishermen who lost work, cleanup workers who suffered illness, and others who claimed harm from the April 2010 BP Gulf Oil Spill. RD Legal Funding, LLC ("RD Legal") is offering lawsuit settlement funding to plaintiffs who are...

Study showed recovery was possible for arthropods within a year if their host plants remained healthy Crabs, insects and spiders living in coastal salt marshes affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster were damaged by the massive oil spill but were able to recover within a year if their host plants remained healthy, according to a University of Houston study published Wednesday (March 7) in the open access journal PLoS ONE. In one of the first studies to look at how oil spills...

Tracking Debris from Damaged Oil Rigs Could Help Forecast Coastal Impacts in the Future Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, mysterious honeycomb material was found floating in the Gulf of Mexico and along coastal beaches. Using state-of-the-art chemical forensics and a bit of old-fashioned detective work, a research team led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) confirmed that the flotsam were pieces of material used to maintain buoyancy of the pipe...