Last week, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig had a fatal accident, which caused the drilling platform to explode in the Gulf of Mexico. The only tragedy though to have come from this, were the deaths of the missing personnel. However, they did not see the environmental impacts of this explosion until now.

It has been discovered that the oil rig explosion is causing 42,000 gallons of oil to spill into the ocean each day. At first, the residue seen in the water was thought to be from the fire. Further investigation has lead to the conclusion that the residue is actually a growing oil slick, which is growing because of an uncapped well.

BP, which leased the rig, said last week that it was doing everything in its power to contain the spill and resolve the situation “as rapidly, safely and effectively as possible.” They are using underwater robots, 700 personnel, five aircraft, 32 vessels, and nearly 200 miles of floating booms. The slick is currently 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, potentially threatening fragile coastal wetlands, fisheries, shrimp nurseries and other marine life such as sea turtles.

The world’s worst oil spill was in 1989 when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground off Alaska, shedding 10.8 million gallons in a disaster from which local wildlife has still not recovered. The new leak would take 261 days to reach the same level, but a catastrophe is a real prospect if attempts to close off the broken pipes using robotic submarines fail.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 3:25 am and is filed under Featured, U.S. News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.