[dirtboy]

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.

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.

[huldah1776]

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.

[MuttTheHoople]

"MMMMMM, oil...."

[Malsua]

make as quick work of petroleum lingering in the water's cold depths as they have on the surface.

So all that dispersant is causing the oil to linger longer?

[jonrick46]

I am thinking of the makings of a disaster movie: Oil spill, hungary bacteria; hungary bacteria mutates and the invasion of the killer slime!

[Opinionated Blowhard]

If I remember correctly from the movie, isn’t this how the “Blob” was born????? Be afraid, be very afraid!!

[webheart]

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.

[rex regnum insanit]

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.

[texmexis best]

This study was done in late June, a decades-long-time-ago in “bacteria time”.

[bert]

Blah blah blah, yada yada yada.....

Wish it weren’t August and there was something important to write about.

[editor-surveyor]

Basically just more chicken little BS!

Nothing will make light molecules remain on the bottom.

Gravity rules.

[denydenydeny]

This “invisible plume” meme feels very politicized. The AGW comparison is very apt. We are told, insistently, that a phenomenon that we cannot see, feel, taste, or smell is definitely happening; their “calculations” assure us of this.