Pictured: Two scientists. Pretty boring stuff, right? I received this image via email earlier this week. My inbox is full of some really exciting stuff.
But what these two men and the rest of their team at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) discovered is actually pretty serious. Using a portable mass spectrometer attached to a small autonomous underwater vehicle - think flux capacitor attached to the Delorean piloted remotely by Doc and Marty - WHOI scientists discovered a 1.2 mile-wide, 650-foot tall, 22-mile long plume of "trapped hydrocarbons" (aka oil) sitting about 3,000 miles below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. It is believed that all of the oil is residual from the failed Deep Water Horizon well.
Now I don't know how much oil in barrel or gallon terms exists in a 1.2 mile by 650 foot by 22 mile plume, but it seems like a lot. I also don't know where oil floating 3,000+ feet below the surface winds up, but I am sure it's not good for beaches, shrimp, tuna, or wetlands and I am sure it's not recoverable for use in Phil's Subaru. Whatever the case, bad news all around.
This graphic gives a good idea of what this mess looks like now.
Once again, TCD brings its readership breaking news and ground breaking commentary. Yawn. Now where's the Pulitzer already?!?
