What's REALLY going on with the BP oil spill

[tom502]

I have read all kinds of poisones gasses, and radioactive materials are coming out, some have even said they may have tapped a volcano.

[truthwolf1]

[tom502]

Darn work comp blocks stuff.

[truthwolf1]

Being Sarcastic.

Just a pick of our leader playing basketball.

[tom502]

It seems to me, that the amount of oil and whatever else radioactive magma pouring out, would cause a displacement, and a vacuum, or cavern, I mean, if you have a water balloon and pop it, it all falls into itself, like a sinkhole would. Seems thiswould effect the ocean floor and things like tectonic plates and whatnot.

[Bigblue1]

It's not good, We are quite possibly looking at the biggest man made ****ing catastrophe ever. And really what else are they doing while were all dialed in on this, and what kind of Draconian legislation are they going to pass because of this crises, We all know how Rahm feels about a good crisis, OMFgawd

[sgreger1]

It seems to me, that the amount of oil and whatever else radioactive magma pouring out, would cause a displacement, and a vacuum, or cavern, I mean, if you have a water balloon and pop it, it all falls into itself, like a sinkhole would. Seems thiswould effect the ocean floor and things like tectonic plates and whatnot.

Yes if all the oil left than that would be true, but the reserve underground in this well is so vast and massive that it would take a few hundred years for any significant amount to come out. What we are seeing is a leak in the baloon so small you can barely even notice it deflating.


I don't think anything radiactive is coming out but there is all sorts of other chemicals contained in those wells. Crude oil looks much different than the gas at your pump and the colors come from a combination of things.

My concern is that a lot of these chemicals will really affect the environment. And once all the more complex predators die off in the gulf, the jellyfish will take over.



And now:

Endangered Sea Turtles Burned Alive in Oil Spill Clean-up



EDIT: You would know if MAGMA was coming out of that well lolool. No magma or volcano right now.

[LaZeR]

....EDIT: You would know if MAGMA was coming out of that well lolool. No magma or volcano right now.

What if someone goes down there and lights a match or tosses a cigarette?

[tom502]

I'm sure they have "No Smoking" signs posted near the area.

[justintempler]

There's too much oil, the casing is pierced, which means the relief wells they are drilling won't work.
They're going to have to do an underwater demolition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/op...rownfield.html

Op-Ed Contributor

Blow Up the Well to Save the Gulf

By CHRISTOPHER BROWNFIELD

Published: June 21, 2010

TONY HAYWARD, the chief executive of BP, made an astounding admission before Congress last week: after nearly two months of failure, the company and the Coast Guard have no further plans to plug the Macondo oil well leaking into the Gulf. Instead, the goal is merely to contain the leak until a relief well comes online, a process that could take months.


With tens of thousands of barrels of oil leaking from the well each day, this absence of a backup plan highlights a lack of leadership, resources and expertise on the part of the Coast Guard, which from the beginning was compelled to give BP complete control over the leaking wellhead.

Instead, President Obama needs to create a new command structure that places responsibility for plugging the leak with the Navy, the only organization in the world that can muster the necessary team. Then the Navy needs to demolish the well.
The Coast Guard, of course, should continue to play a role. But it should focus on what it can do well, like containing the oil already in the Gulf and protecting the coast with oil booms and skimmers. It should also use this crisis to establish permanent collaborations with other maritime forces around the globe, particularly those that can get to a disaster area quickly.
But control of the well itself should fall to the Navy — it alone has the resources to stop the flow. For starters, the Office of Naval Research controls numerous vehicles like Alvin, the famed submersible used to locate the Titanic. Had such submersibles been deployed earlier, we could have gotten real-time information about the wellhead, instead of waiting for BP to release critical details.
The Navy also commands explosives experts who have vast knowledge of underwater demolitions. And it has some of the world’s finest underwater engineers at Naval Reactors, the secretive program that is responsible for designing nuclear reactors for nuclear submarines. With the help of scientists in our national weapons laboratories and experts from private companies, these engineers can be let loose on the well.
To allay any concerns over militarizing the crisis, the Navy and Coast Guard should be placed in a task-force structure alongside a corps of experts, including independent oil engineers, drilling experts with dedicated equipment, geologists, energy analysts and environmentalists, who could provide pragmatic options for emergency action.
With this new structure in place, the Navy could focus on stopping the leak with a conventional demolition. This means more than simply “blowing it up”: it means drilling a hole parallel to the leaking well and lowering charges to form an explosive column.
Upon detonating several tons of explosives, a pressure wave of hundreds of thousands of pounds per square inch would spread outward in the same way that light spreads from a tubular fluorescent bulb, evenly and far. Such a sidelong explosion would implode the oil well upstream of the leak by crushing it under a layer of impermeable rock, much as stepping on a garden hose stops the stream of water.
It’s true that the primary blast of a conventional explosion is less effective underwater than on land because of the intense back-pressure that muffles the shock wave. But as a submariner who studied the detonation of torpedoes, I learned that an underwater explosion also creates rapid follow-on shockwaves. In this case, the expansion and collapse of explosive gases inside the hole would act like a hydraulic jackhammer, further pulverizing the rock.
The idea of detonating the well already has serious advocates. A few people have even called for using a nuclear device to plug the well, as the Soviet Union has done several times. But that would be overkill. Smartly placed conventional explosives could achieve the same results, and avoid setting an unacceptable international precedent for the “peaceful” use of nuclear weapons.
At best, a conventional demolition would seal the leaking well completely and permanently without damaging the oil reservoir. At worst, oil might seep through a tortuous flow-path that would complicate long-term cleanup efforts. But given the size and makeup of the geological structures between the seabed and the reservoir, it’s virtually inconceivable that an explosive could blast a bigger hole than already exists and release even more oil.
The task force could prepare for demolition without forgoing the current efforts to drill relief wells. And even if the ongoing efforts succeed and a demolition proves unnecessary, the non-nuclear option would give President Obama an ace in the hole and a clear signal that he’s in charge — not BP.

Christopher Brownfield is a former nuclear submarine officer and the author of the forthcoming memoir “My Nuclear Family.”

[tom502]

Nuke it!

[NonServiam]

The EPA says this won't effect drinking water because the nearest inlet is like 49 miles upstream from the gulf or something like that. If this has already been covered in this thread, I apologize, but if they can't get this thing capped off, how would that effect our supply of drinking water? Doesn't it all eventually circulate around through the water cycle/table?

This oil commodity is going to be the death of us. It's all Jed Clampett's fault for one day shooting at some food, and up out outta the ground came a bubblin' crude. Oil that is. Texas Tea.

[sgreger1]

The EPA says this won't effect drinking water because the nearest inlet is like 49 miles upstream from the gulf or something like that. If this has already been covered in this thread, I apologize, but if they can't get this thing capped off, how would that effect our supply of drinking water? Doesn't it all eventually circulate around through the water cycle/table?

This oil commodity is going to be the death of us. It's all Jed Clampett's fault for one day shooting at some food, and up out outta the ground came a bubblin' crude. Oil that is. Texas Tea.

Yah this administration would never use the nuke option because the environmentalists would cry foul and if ANYTHING went wrong, the right wing pundits would never let Obama live it down.



The sad reality of this whole thing is that we are farked, there is little that we can'will do to fix this in the near future. The casings cracked, you know they won't nuke it, therefore it's all aboard the failboat for us.

[sgreger1]

Swiss company reverse engineers the Shamwow just in time to cash in on the oil spill




Swiss company HeiQ Materials claims a new fabric called "Oilguard" that it developed with German partners absorbs oil and repels water -- a powerful tool, the company says, for protecting and cleaning up oil-strewn beaches in the Gulf of Mexico.





Also: NASA'S LATEST PIC OF GIANT SPILL

[danielan]

Doesn't it all eventually circulate around through the water cycle/table?

Not really.