12 Facts about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010

This is the first post of the 2 post series about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010

How much do we care for our environment? How much are we willing to do to at least stop further hurting it? Well, these are all vague questions, the answers of which are bound to be vague too. Instead let’s talk about something which can be “measured”, which will not be vague. Let’s talk about Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010 or Macondo Blowout.

What! Did I just say “oil spill”? “Spill” as if a little milk spilled from a glass? The word “spill” doesn’t do justice to the crisis that the Gulf of Mexico is facing right now. The Gulf of Mexico is faced with an unchecked flood of crude oil coming from the underground well and no one knows when this will end.

In this post I have gathered 12 updated facts about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010. Here are the facts:

1. The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010 is also referred to as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the BP Oil Spill, the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, the BP Oil Disaster or the Macondo Blowout.

2. The oil spill of the Gulf of Mexico started on April 20, 2010 with the explosion on the Transocean Deepwater Horizon Rig. “Deepwater Horizon” is a 5th generation, dynamic positioned (DP) semi-submersible oil rig owned by Transocean.

3. The explosion has injured 17 platform workers and 11 are missing, presumably dead.

4. The oil rig sank on April 22, 2010 which caused massive amount of oil to leak out into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill occurred some 50 miles away from the cost of Venice, Louisiana. As of now, oil is seeping into the wetlands of Louisiana making it a potentially risky place to live in for both human and animals. BP is saying that it may be months before the oil is contained.

5. Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill of 2010 is considered the biggest offshore oil spill in US history as it crossed the mark of 10.8 million gallons of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez, previous largest oil spill in US.

6. The source of the oil is a deepwater wellhead 5,000 feet or 1,500 meters below the ocean surface.

7. Every day 210,000-260,000 gallons of crude oil is being wasted and added to the water of the Gulf of Mexico (official sources say). This is equivalent of 1 Olympic pool every 3 days. That’s about 19.24 million gallons of oil spilled so far. Some scientists state that the rate is much higher than this.

8. Oil spill covers a total area of more than 4000 square miles which is 10 times larger than the area of New York City. But even a larger area is polluted by oil underwater, which cannot be seen from the surface.

Read this book about Gulf Oil Spill titled "Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster". I think you should know about what happened there.You can get this book from Amazon for a discount.

9. The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010 has greatly devastated the marine and wildlife habitats. This has put the population of turtles (Loggerhead, Kemp’s Ridley), mammals (Fin Whales, Sperm Whales, and Bottlenose Dolphin), fish (Tuna, Sailfish, Jack etc) and pelagic birds in that area in grave danger.These animals need to be protected.

10. The initial loss for the fishing industry was 2.73 billion USD.

11. US government has named BP as the responsible party for this disaster. The Deepwater Horizon was worth more than 560 million dollars. And the cost to clear up the huge mess on the water will be about $12.5 billion. BP will pay the entire cost themselves.

12. Multiple aircrafts, 75 vessels and about 2000 personnel have been deployed so far to bring the matter under control.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is getting more political attention than environmental. You be the judge of which has the top most priority. According to my opinion, finding the reason behind this occurrence at Gulf of Mexico is very important so that these sorts of things never happen again. It is also important to find out who ARE actually responsible for this. But right now, the top most priority should be to secure the area under threat, to secure the marine and wildlife of that area. The environment and thus human lives are at risk. We can find plenty time to play the blame game, but now, the most priority should be “environment.” And we can not let BP to drill on the Arctics too.

Reference: Wikipedia, National Geographic, PBS Newshour, Bukisa

You have read what I have to say, now share your views. What do you think about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 2010?

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