It's over four years since Deepwater Horizon went belly up—but the whereabouts of two million barrels of oil that burst out from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico has remained a mystery. Now, a team of scientists believe they've found it.
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that after the Deep Water Horizon disaster, engineers and scientists weren't sure that capping the Macondo well was the best idea. In fact, it could have lead to an even larger, harder to control spill.
Fixing This | One year on, we take a look at the technologies used to combat the worst oil spill in US history
Last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill dumped an estimated 2.6 million gallons of oil A DAY into the Gulf of Mexico - you'd think someone would have gotten on that faster. Oh, they did? Fire on the Horizon explains what took so damn long.
This solar-powered fellow is part of a robot group called Seaswarm. He and his buddies are cheap, autonomous, and communicate via GPS and Wi-Fi. And 5,000 of them could theoretically clean up the Gulf oil spill in a month.
The live stream above shows BP's attempt to permanently stop the flow of oil by piling on a bunch of mud and cement over the gusher—a method also known as a static kill.
BP may not know where oil from the Gulf gusher will go next, but Intel does.
"I know at any moment this machine could destroy itself and there won't be a thing I can do about it. What a mutinous thing when a machine, usually so faithful and repetitious, turns against us."
Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi shores have already been hit with oil from the BP disaster. Now Florida is preparing for the arrival of the slick stuff on its beaches this week. What happens when oil starts showing up?
Maybe you want to protest BP. Maybe you're just sick of hearing about them. Either way, you can now block all mention of British Petroleum from your internets with a Firefox plug-in... and replace them with mini oil spills.
BP will attempt to shut down the oil well that's been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico later today. Step one: the "top-kill" method, wherein heavy drilling mud is forced deep into the well. Let's pray it works. Video explanation:
Oil Reporter isn't a public shaming campaign for BP—no, that'll take care of itself just fine, thanks. This iPhone app, which lets Gulf Coast residents record every oily bird and patch of ruined swampland, is about fixing things.
Click to viewThis video clip shows us what was going on about a day after a devastating explosion led to the Gulf oil disaster. It's absolutely terrifying.
We've seen aerial shots of the oil spill before, but the damage is so broad it's nearly impossible to get any perspective. Well, now you can map it over any city—or state—in the world, using Google Earth.
It's easy to lose your sense of scale when thinking about the massive oil spill spreading across the Gulf of Mexico, and I'm not sure this photo, taken from the ISS, will help.
