"MMMMMM, oil...."
Posted on 08/20/2010 11:15:52 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
A new study confirming the existence of a massive plume of oil trapped deep underwater in the Gulf of Mexico defies notions that bacteria, while they are degrading the oil, will make as quick work of petroleum lingering in the water's cold depths as they have on the surface.
In a widely hailed study published today in the journal Science, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found there was no "appreciable" surge in bacteria growth and oil consumption around a plume they traced near the well that exploded earlier this summer. The first published peer-reviewed study of the subsurface oil found a plume stretching over an area nearly the size of Manhattan.
Based on measurements taken in late June, the study confirms the existence of an invisible, finely diffused mile-wide swath of oil-infused water that snaked more than 20 miles southwest from the crippled BP PLC well, some 3,000 feet beneath the Gulf's surface. The plume may have stretched even farther, but the scientists had to cut short their late-June research journey in the face of hurricane threats before they found the end of the plume.
Along the plume, researchers did not find dissolved oxygen depleting at levels they anticipated, indicating that while bacteria growth was stimulated and likely degrading the oil, there was not a huge swell in microbial life. Bacterial growth can deplete undersea oxygen levels, creating "dead zones" that are harmful to other marine creatures.
"The overall result is that we did not see a marked oxygen draw-down in the plume location at the well," said Benjamin Van Mooy, a scientist who contributed to the report.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wow. A mile wide and twenty miles long, in a body of water the size of the Gulf. And southwest, away from land.
Along the plume, researchers did not find dissolved oxygen depleting at levels they anticipated, indicating that while bacteria growth was stimulated and likely degrading the oil, there was not a huge swell in microbial life. Bacterial growth can deplete undersea oxygen levels, creating "dead zones" that are harmful to other marine creatures.
So in other words, there doesn't seem to be a signficant ecological impact here.
Now how do you expect bacteria to find an invisible oil plume? I know they do communicate with each other, so maybe the word just hasn’t gotten out yet or the feast is over and they’ve moved on to browner fields.
"MMMMMM, oil...."
OH Nos.....the giant BLOB from the sea....will eat Florida next....
Again with the invisible nonsense, it’s not invisible, how infantile. Also, do you think bacteria actually see things? Uggh !!
So all that dispersant is causing the oil to linger longer?
Hopefully this whole matter will get an honest assessment from both government and the industry, so that there will be a good bank of data to draw on for future spills.
I am thinking of the makings of a disaster movie: Oil spill, hungary bacteria; hungary bacteria mutates and the invasion of the killer slime!
There won’t be anymore “accidents” since the rigs have been moved to Bra$oro$.
Pray for America
They so desperately want to find some crisis to justify shutting down the Gulf oil industry.
Damn,...now the DoomsDay Industry has a new way to frighten the masses.
Sure looks that way to me...some of the Woods Hole Scientists are also part of the “Global Warming is coming” crowd.
If I remember correctly from the movie, isn’t this how the “Blob” was born????? Be afraid, be very afraid!!
It’s like the monster under your bed, you can’t see it, but YOU KNOW IT’S THERE.
Wouldn’t that just be a movie about Capital Hill?
Please could somebody explain how oil, which is lighter than water, be trapped under nothing but water. I don’t have tubs of Crisco or bottles of Quaker State to waste trying my own experiments. Plus, my wife hates it when I do experiments in the bathtub.
I think the invisible "nonsense" comes from the plume story yesterday.
Major study charts long-lasting oil plume in Gulf
"The oil droplets are odorless and too small to be seen by the human eye. If you swam through the plume, you wouldn’t notice it."
"The water samples when we were right in the plume look like spring water," study chief author Richard Camilli said.
Bacteria communicate, and I was being facetious about the invisibility which I read in another scientific release. Any dead bacteria show up on the beaches?
After the wonderful job that “peer reviewed literature”, including that impeccable journal SCIENCE, did to anyone who disagreed with anthropogenic global warming nonsense, it’s no surprise that this study disagreed with the premise that the oil is being disposed of without human assistance. The hairshirts of the AGW conspiracy will not have nature taking care of itself.
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