Source: The Huntsville Times
Source: NASA
Oil leaking from a sunken drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico oozed slowly toward the coast Monday, endangering hundreds of miles of marshes, barrier islands and white sand beaches in four states from Louisiana to Florida, the Associated Press reports.
Meanwhile, NASA released a satellite photograph of the slick as it approached the coast.
The areas, home to dolphins, sea birds, prime fishing grounds and tourist playlands, could be fouled later this week if crews can’t cut off an estimated 42,000 gallons a day escaping two leaks in a drilling pipe about 5,000 feet below the surface.
The rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and sank two days later. Eleven of the 126 workers on board at the time are missing and presumed dead; the rest escaped. The cause of the explosion has not been determined and oil has been leaking ever since.
Crews are using robot submarines to activate valves in hopes of stopping the leaks, but they’re not sure when they’ll know if that strategy will work.
The spill, moving slowly north and spreading east and west, was about 30 miles from the Chandeleur Islands off the Louisiana coast Tuesday. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration said it would likely be several days before any oil reaches the coast.
George Crozier, oceanographer and executive director at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, said he was studying wind and ocean currents driving the oil. He said Pensacola, Fla., is likely the edge of the threatened area.
“I don’t think anybody knows with confidence what the effects will be,” Crozier said. “We’ve never seen anything like this magnitude.”
This image of the affected area was captured on April 25 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The Mississippi Delta is at image center, and the oil slick is a silvery swirl in the lower right quadrant. The oil slick may be particularly obvious because it is occurring in the sunglint area, where the mirror-like reflection of the Sun off the water gives the Gulf of Mexico a washed-out look.