A measurement of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil slick thickness/volume with critical socio-economic implications has been reported by researchers from a range of academic, government and industry bodies including the University of South Florida, the U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Managements, and Abt Associates.
A new study shows that sunlight transforms oil spills on the ocean surface more quickly and significantly than previously thought, limiting the effectiveness of chemical dispersants that break up floating oil.
A new oceanographic study underscores the deep connection that exists between Florida and Cuba. Researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science have uncovered specific types of previously unknown clockwise recirculating ocean features (called anticyclonic eddies or anticyclones), which they named Cuban Anticyclones, or CubANs since they form and travel eastward along the Cuban coast.
An experiment featuring the largest flotilla of sensors ever deployed in a single area provides new insights into how marine debris, or flotsam, moves on the surface of the ocean. The experiment conducted in the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill placed hundreds of drifting sensors to observe how material moves on the ocean’s surface.
New research has uncovered an added dimension to the decision to inject large amounts of chemical dispersants above the crippled seafloor oil well during the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
A team of fisheries biologists led by Jacob Johansen and Andrew Esbaugh of The University of Texas Marine Science Institute have discovered that oil impacts the higher-order thinking of coral reef fish in a way that could prove dangerous for them–and for the coral reefs where they make their home.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the deaths of 11 oil rig workers and ultimately the largest marine oil spill in history. As this environmental disaster recedes into history, researchers from institutions across the U.S. continue to study its enduring ecological impacts.
Instruments already exist that measure ocean currents, and others that measure wind, such as NASA’s QuickScat and RapidScat. But a new, airborne radar instrument developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is able to measure both.
Researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science have developed a new technology to measure the currents near the ocean’s surface that carry pollutants such as plastics and spilled oil.
A team of scientists from the US and Mexico is studying the ocean floor near the site of the Ixtoc oil well blowout, in the hope of predicting the future health of marine life in the waters surrounding the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.