Via Reuters, we have this little horror story fresh from the Gulf of Mexico :
Texas A&M University oceanography professor John Kessler, just back from a 10-day research expedition near the BP Plc oil spill in the gulf, says methane gas levels in some areas are “astonishingly high.”
Kessler’s crew took measurements of both surface and deep water within a 5-mile (8 kilometer) radius of BP’s broken wellhead.
“There is an incredible amount of methane in there,” Kessler told reporters in a telephone briefing.
In some areas, the crew of 12 scientists found concentrations that were 100,000 times higher than normal.
“We saw them approach a million times above background concentrations” in some areas, Kessler said.
The scientists were looking for signs that the methane gas had depleted levels of oxygen dissolved in the water needed to sustain marine life.
“At some locations, we saw depletions of up to 30 percent of oxygen based on its natural concentration in the waters. At other places, we saw no depletion of oxygen in the waters. We need to determine why that is,” he told the briefing.
Methane occurs naturally in sea water, but high concentrations can encourage the growth of microbes that gobble up oxygen needed by marine life.
Kessler said oxygen depletions have not reached a critical level yet, but the oil is still spilling into the Gulf, now at a rate of as much as 60,000 barrels a day, according to U.S. government estimates.
“What is it going to look like two months down the road, six months down the road, two years down the road?” he asked.
I am pretty sure that the full story of the mess down there is being kept quiet to prevent the residents from the coastal areas from going berzerk which they surely will when they find out their current livelihoods and environment are completely fucked. Having said that, there will be good employment in picking up tarballs from the shore for many years to come if the well continues to flow at the rate it is doing to say nothing of the oil slick that will be spread inland when the first hurricane goes crashing through.
Despite the danger growing every minute and the environment being damaged with every barrel of leaking crude, we Americans are still arguing whether the IRANIANs are experts or not.
Lets stop being skeptical about others abilities just because we have failed. failed our nation, our environment and our marine life.
The world knows that the Iranians are experts in drilling and oil leak prevention and containment. Even the oil producing nations would bet for their skills in this crisis. It is us who are full of doubts. and the only reason for this is Israel. We see everyone who is Israel’s adversary as our enemy. Anyone who talks anti-Zionist becomes our hate symbol. Lets get out of this Zionist mindset and this Iranophobia. It is our nation and its environment at stake today.
We need to rise above our political difference, they can be settled sometime else.
Lets call for the IRANIANs now before its too late to do anything better