NEWS AND NOTES
Blue Water Sailing
May 19, 2010
Cruisers Want To Know How Oil in Gulf Will Damage Their Engines
"We are soon to move aboard and get the remaining finishing touches on our boat, our home port is Corpus Christi, TX. We are extremely concerned about the oil in the Gulf. This oil is not just on the surface as you all know, the dispersants etc. Have globs of oil, tar feet below the surface, plus the huge rivers of oil in the ocean currents at great depths. So the question is...how bad is this stuff for a fiberglass hull and what would happen if you motored through some of it would it be a big problem for the diesel and impeller, engine seawater system? You certainly would not want to use the Head and flush oil through your head!" Posted by Steve & Lynn Steakley,– Wand'rin Star (Endeavor 42), Corpus Christi, Texas on the Cruisers_Network_Online Yahoo Group.
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty
No one knows yet, how bad this catastrophe will be but now that the oil has entered the Loop Current, it will bring the oil to Florida's pristine beaches, reefs and then take it straight up the east coast.
Satellite imagery (May 17, 2010) from NASA's MODIS instrument confirms that a substantial tongue of oil has moved southeast from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and entered the Gulf of Mexico's Loop Current.
Likely areas of impact
Based on a study of 194 floating probes released into the Northeast Gulf of Mexico during a 1-year study in the 1990s (Figure 3), the west coast of Florida from Tampa Bay southwards to the Everglades is at minimal risk of receiving oil from surface currents. There is a "forbidden zone" off the southwest Florida coast where the shape of the coast, bottom configuration, and prevailing winds all act to create upwelling and surface currents that tend to take water away from the coast. This study implies that the greatest risk of land impacts by surface oil caught in the Loop Current is along the ocean side of the Florida Keys, and along the coast of Southeast Florida from Miami to West Palm Beach. Eddies breaking away from the Gulf Stream would also likely bring oil to northwest Cuba, the western Bahamas, and the U.S. East Coast as far north as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, though at lesser concentrations. Southwest Florida cannot rest entirely, though--the "forbidden zone" is only true for surface waters, and there is onshore flow below the surface. Since recent ship measurements have detected substantial plumes of oil beneath the surface, southwest Florida might be at risk if one of these plumes gets entrained into the Loop Current. These subsurface plumes were also detected by current probes launched into the oil spill on May 8 by one of NOAA's hurricane hunter aircraft, according to one scientist I spoke to at last week's AMS hurricane conference. There are plans for the Hurricane Hunters to go out again tomorrow and drop more probes into the spill to attempt to get a better handle on where the oil is and where the currents are taking it.
Satellite image of the oil spill taken at 12:40 EDT Monday May 17, 2010. The location of the
Loop Current is superimposed. Image credit: University of Wisconsin and NASA
Forecast made at 8pm EDT Sunday May 16, 2010, of the Gulf of Mexico
currents by NOAA's HYCOM model. A persistent southward flowing
surface current is predicted to occur this week between the oil spill
location (red dot) and the Loop Current. Image credit: NOAA.
Paths of 194 floating probes released into the yellow-outlined area in the northeast Gulf of Mexico between February 1996 and February 1997 as part of a study by the Mineral Management Service (MMS). The probes were all launched into waters with depth between 20 and 60 meters.
Image credit: Yang, H., R.H. Weisberga, P.P. Niilerb, W. Sturgesc, and W. Johnson, 1999,
'Lagrangian circulation and forbidden zone on the West Florida Shelf, Continental Shelf Research.'
MORE: www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html
Here's a list of Links on the Oil Spill:
NOAA Office of Response & Restoration: Deepwater Horizon Emergency Response Page
Deepwater Horizon Unified Command: Deepwater Horizon Response Page
Roffer’s Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service: Deepwater Horizon Rig Oil Spill Monitoring Page
NASA: Oil Spill Imagery Page
ESRI: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Map (Interactive)
Google Crisis Response: Gulf of Mexico Map (Interactive)
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