Gulf Tragedy: Can anyone explain about the Oil Plumes beneath the surface?

[Mike 03]

One of the most horrific unknowns about this BP spill are these "under surface plumes" that some reports say are miles long and miles wide and miles deep, and I have not studied oil spills, but I have never heard of this phenomenon before.

Are subsurface oil plumes a common phenomenon? Do we scientifically know much about them, or what to do about them?

One report I heard said there was a plume ten miles long and two or three miles wide. If this is true, the South faces an unbelievable disaster, doesn't it?

I don't understand how these plumes will manifest, but I am presuming that even though they are beneath the surface, they are going to do untold damage to the environment.

This oil spill is turning into an incredible disaster, and I think people are not taking it seriously enough.

[izquierdista]

1. As posted before

This is a matter of time scales. When you shake up a bottle of salad dressing and let it sit, in about half an hour the oil and water will have separated and the oil sits neatly on top of the aqueous layer. But the scale of the Gulf of Mexico is much larger than a bottle of salad dressing; the bottle is maybe a foot high (if you got the economy size), and the Gulf is 5000 feet deep where the source of the oil leak is. Add in the currents, the temperature gradient, and the turbulent flow of the oil squirting out at high pressure, and the oil is not going to calmly float to the top in half an hour. This is a situation FAR, FAR from equilibrium, and there are meteorological forces that will keep the oil/water system from coming to equilibrium.

[Chemisse]

2. Nice explanation

I was wondering the same thing.

[izquierdista]

3. And another thing

These chemicals being injected around the spill and sprayed overhead should not be called dispersants, but emulsifiers. The end result is the same -- the oil phase is being chemically modified to mix with the aqueous phase by forming a colloid, mayonnaise or snot in non-scientific lingo. Now this snot is denser than oil, maybe even approaching the density of sea water, so there is no longer very much force sending it to the surface. In fact, if it is cold snot, it may be denser than the warm water at the surface, so it will STAY underwater indefinitely. Remember, the water at the bottom of the ocean is about 4C (about 38F), since that is the temperature where water has a maximum in density. A little bit of oil emulsified with a lot of sea water at 4C could stay submerged for a long, long, long time.

[inna]

4. And another thing...

Corexit is also, according to the EPA, "carcinogenic, mutagenic, and highly toxic."

What is taking place right now is simply unthinkable. To say that it's criminal is a huge understatement.

[Cetacea]

5. An extinction level event.

Our beautiful minds will not know as our eyes will be spared.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. That is exactly what is occurring

turning the ocean into a sea of "snot" so that we can't see the oil, nor clean it up. Meanwhile it will wipe-out everything it comes in contact with.

[izquierdista]

7. Not everything

There are organisms that can survive, even thrive in oil soaked glop -- bacteria, fungi maybe. Whatever does survive this mass extinction event will also probably be able to eat anything that humans choose to use to defend themselves with when it comes after them.

[Swamp Rat]

8. Unfortunately, holoplanktonic opisthobranch gastropod mollusks will not survive

:(