Spill Smarts

What is oil?

Oil is a liquid, and there are many types of oil. The oil you use for cooking is not the same oil you use to clean wounds or fill your gasoline tank in a car. Oil is usually lighter than water, which means that if you put oil and water together in a container, the oil will float on top of the water’s surface.

The kind of oil that is now in the Gulf of Mexico came from below the ocean floor and is known as “crude oil.” Crude oil and other kinds of oil are formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived and died before the dinosaurs. Crude oil is smelly and has a yellow-black color. We retrieve oil from the ground and sea floor by drilling pipes into them that will bring the oil to the surface.

Why do we use crude oil?

Crude oil is refined — that is, processed through different machines and with different chemicals — for many different reasons. Crude oil is usually refined and used to fuel cars and trucks, as well as to heat houses and buildings. It can also be used to make plastic grocery bags, crayons, dishwashing liquid and other household items.

How did the oil spill start?

A drilling rig called “Deepwater Horizon” exploded on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion started a fire and helped the rig sink into the ocean. Two days later, crude oil from a broken pipe began flowing out into the ocean, almost a mile beneath the water’s surface.

Because oil is lighter than water, the crude oil coming out of the pipe began traveling up to the surface. The U.S. Coast Guard and other organizations are working to keep the oil from spreading and to remove the oil from the water’s surface.

How much oil is in the Gulf of Mexico?

Experts and government officials disagree over how much oil is spilling out of the pipeline. Estimations range between 210,000 gallons and 4.2 million gallons of oil leaked per day.

But those big numbers can be hard to imagine. Let’s try measuring the oil spill using a more familiar object: bathtubs.

To come up with their estimates, experts are analyzing video of oil spilling out of an underwater pipe. Here’s what the oil leak looks like up close:

Where is the oil spill?

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded is located about 50 miles away from the Louisiana coast. As of late May, the oily surface is affecting the Louisana, Mississippi and Alabama shorelines.

What are people doing about the spill?

The company that owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig is called British Petroleum (BP). BP tried to shut down the flow of oil but could not. This means that, as of late May 2010, oil is still leaking out into the ocean.

BP is working with the government and other organizations to keep the oil from spreading out. One way of doing this is to use long pieces of fabric, called “booms,” that will keep the oil together. Chemicals called “dispersants” are also being used to help clean up the oil from the water’s surface.

How long will the oil be in the ocean?

Oil is still flowing out of the pipeline. Nobody knows when or if the pipe can be shut down, and millions of gallons are already in the ocean. Working to clean up the oil could take many years. In the meantime, many animals could be hurt, and many people will have to stop fishing, boating and doing other water activities.

Why should I care?

If you live far away from the Gulf of Mexico, it might be hard for you to imagine why the oil spill is so important. The oil spill affects more than animals. Many people in Louisiana have run fishing and shrimping businesses for many generations. Now they can’t continue their work because the oil would make the fish and shrimp unsafe to eat.

Imagine that a big road near your house was closed for a long time. Do you think your parents and neighbors would be happy about having to drive a longer way just to go to work and school and the grocery store? The Gulf of Mexico is a big traffic area for many trading boats, yachts and luxury vessels. But oil can damage the boats, so many people can no longer use them or have to travel a longer way to reach their destination.