It Just Gets Worse

Gulf oil spill swiftly balloons, could move east

The government and the corporations are not doing enough to take care of the environment. They seem powerless at this point to stop the oil spill, and this is not just one oil taker full of petroleum. This could potentially go on for months, ruining the entire Gulf of Mexico for years to come. They need to come up with a real plan and then execute it as soon as possible. Perhaps it was a mistake to drill so deep underneath the ocean in the first place. There comes a point where we must reassess the very structure of our technological society and ask if we should not start moving away from petroleum. This is a big problem which will take a great deal of brainpower to formulate solutions for. I hope that they can indeed solve the problems facing our world. If not, then perhaps we should consider a change in planetary management.

A Peek at the Wellhead

Oil spill: Gulf of Mexico disaster 'growing by the moment'

This article has a nice graphic of the well head including an image taken of the robot submersible of the robot arm doing it's work. I see that there isn't a problem getting up to the well head and its BOP or Blow Out Preventer. So, is the problem electrical with the switches? Or is it a failure of an electronic or mechanical component? Is this something that can be repaired? If not, then why not?

Gulf Coat Oil Spill - Do The Math

Stopping Gulf Coast oil leak could take weeks

Let's do the math

It is 4/30/2010

The leak has been going from the 20th, 10 days so far.

Each day it has leaked 5000 barrels.

The Exxon Valdez spilled 250,000 barrels of oil.

250,000 / 5000 = 50

Which means that it will take 50 days from the 20th to spill as much oil as did the Exxon Valdez.

It has already been 10 days from the 20th of April, 2010. So, we have another 40 days until it is equal in volume to the previous oil spill disaster.

The thing about this situation, is that it is potentially a leak which will keep on spilling oil into the ocean continuously, for months or even years if nothing is done to stop it.

It will take 30 days to cap the spill. Let's hope that it works.

In the mean time, they will try shutting the valve with the submersibles.

Because I really know nothing about the valve or the equipment and surrounding environment, I can't say why the remote control submersibles can't close the valve, but I would find that out exactly to be sure. I wish that I could download all of the camera movies from the submersibles, but that isn't possible. Without knowing I can't offer any suggestions.

I also want to know the pressure of the oil shooting out of the leaks. Is it above normal? Could that be hampering closure efforts?