Oil Spill Update

Something very cool happened today. I found out last night about the cap that will fit on top of the leaking BOP in the Gulf, which should capture all of the escaping oil until the relief wells are drilled. A couple of the guys I work with are doing some work on it as well and it's cool to see some of the pictures. Once it's in place down in the Gulf, I'll see if I can post a pic of it.

Countering this interesting news, people have been posting theories and other information on what might be happening and what could happen. Worst case scenario is actually really, really bad. What I've been able to glean is that this oil reserve is about 25,000 sq. miles, which makes it the second largest ocean oil reserve in the world (the one off the coast of Brazil is the largest). Also, because of the depth of the reserve, the oil coming out is about 40% methane. Methane is the gas that provides the pressure that drives the oil out of the well.

The failure of the top kill method last month proved that there is a rupture in the pipe below the surface of the sea floor. It may be way deep or may be only 100 ft. below the surface. Because the pressure of the oil is so high and there is so much gas mixed in, gas has likely been escaping through the sub-floor rupture and creating a secondary gas bubble below the surface of the gulf.

Now, the danger is that if the pressure is not relieved in time (by the relief well or if they clamp too much pressure on the BOP), the gas under the surface of the seabed could explode, collapsing the sea floor. This in turn could result in either of two things: Either the BOP crashes down into the hole, collapses and the hole expands providing a greater escape for the oil; or the collapse of the sea bed causes a cascade of sea floor collapse (like floors of a building collapsing each other) and the entire floor collapses into the oil reservoir. If that happens, the pressure release would likely create a tidal wave that could reach supersonic speed. The resulting wave would wipe out nearly everything in Florida (elevation barely tops six feet) and could go north upwards of 20-50 miles.

Huffpo has something similar described.

Even worse, some have questioned whether the resulting collapse and earthquake that would follow might not set off the Yellowstone Caldera volcano. If that happened, the entire Western United States would simply disappear in the eruption. But that's an extreme event.

Hopefully, the relief wells work and all of this is just tin-foil hat stuff. I'll try and keep everyone advised.

*UPDATE*

Look at the lower right hand corner in this video. Doesn't that look like some sort of gremlin from the Twilight Zone?