Electronic Sensors In Salt Water And Oil Spill

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
Just saw this from AP:
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO -- A BP PLC official is saying icelike crystals formed inside of an oil containment box when it was placed over a massive oil leak and that crews have had to move the contraption away to study the problem.

Chief operating officer Doug Suttles said Saturday that he is not saying that the box has failed. But he did say what they tried Friday night did not work.

Suttles says the buildup on the specially constructed box made it too buoyant and clogged it up and they've set it to the side to study the problem.
I wish they would distinguish between methane clathrate and water "ice." I suspect it is the former.

John
 

VoodooMojo

Joined Nov 28, 2009
505
yeah, Injust seen that, damn.

Problem for Containment Dome in Gulf

By LIZ ROBBINS4:41 p.m. | Updated Officials for BP on Saturday encountered a significant setback in their efforts to attach a containment dome over a leaking well on the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico, forcing them to move the dome aside while they find another method to cap the crude oil flowing into the Gulf since April 20.
Officials discovered that gas hydrates, ice-like crystals lighter than water, had built up inside the 100-ton metal container. The hydrates threatened to make the dome buoyant, and they also plugged up the top of the dome, preventing it from being effective.
“I wouldn’t say it has failed yet,” Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer, said at a news conference in Robert, La. “What we attempted to do last night hasn’t worked.”
As a consequence, crews had to lift the dome off the well and place it on the seabed.
BP officials said they had anticipated a problem with hydration — but not this soon in the operation. Since last week they had been cautioning that this type of procedure had never before been attempted at 5,000 feet below the surface.
The news on Saturday came as BP has struggled to find any method to stem the majority of the oil, leaking at least 5,000 gallons barrels — roughly 210,000 gallons — per day.
For now, they have put the dome 650 feet to the side of the leaking well, “while we evaluate options,” Mr. Suttles said.
The containment dome was supposed to be the largest-scale method to cap the majority of the oil flow so far. Other efforts continued on Saturday, as BP said that the drilling a relief well, which would be able to collect the oil at one source of the leak, had reached 9,000 feet.
Weather prevented crews from doing a controlled burn of some of the oil, as they had done successfully on Friday, but they were still able to lay protective boom, said Rear Adm. Mary Landry of the Coast Guard.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
So why can't we just get 20 barges of heavy concrete blocks and dump them on top of the leak? If it were think enough and high enough shouldn't it slow the leak way down or turn it into a seep? I'm not a roughneck so I don't know just what I was thinkin!
 

retched

Joined Dec 5, 2009
5,207
The bricks would bounce off each other and take random paths during the 1 mile journey to the bottom. The chances of actually covering the hole is not good. And the chance of damaging or destroying the safety device is high.
It is the only thing keeping the leak as slow as it is.
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
ahhh, in other news winds switched east and oil spill is now heading towards FLA. I went outside just 10 minutes ago and it smells like a race track. Thick thick thick smell of oiley/burnt race fuel smell. I don't think this is a very good sign. I live on the gulf so winds blow directly in from the water.
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
I used to live on the Gulf side of Anna Maria Key. The only thing you used to have to worry about was the number of Portuguese men of war drifting in. That's going to change.
 

retched

Joined Dec 5, 2009
5,207
The man-o-war is a huge DEADLY jelly. Scary. Especially for scuba divers. You are moseying along looking at coral and the sea floor, not realizing that a man-o-war is above you, waiting to drop thousands of stinging tentacles to entwine you.

Now they may be eradicated, as well as many other species.
 

VoodooMojo

Joined Nov 28, 2009
505
The man-o-war is a huge DEADLY jelly. Scary. Especially for scuba divers. You are moseying along looking at coral and the sea floor, not realizing that a man-o-war is above you, waiting to drop thousands of stinging tentacles to entwine you.

Now they may be eradicated, as well as many other species.
you got a lot of them floating around the Inner Harbor in Baltimore do you?
I am glad I am across the howard county line. we only have to worry about the crawdads in the creek


edit)
the Patapsco IS a creek, isnt it?
 
The industry uses a 42 gallon standard for 1 barrel of crude oil. Other times, the news guys may use gallons to make spills look larger.

Cheers, DPW [ Everything has limitations...and I hate limitations.]
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
The industry uses a 42 gallon standard for 1 barrel of crude oil. Other times, the news guys may use gallons to make spills look larger.

Cheers, DPW [ Everything has limitations...and I hate limitations.]
That would actually mean more barrels for a quoted number of gallons then the standard 55gal barrels.

About the manowar, did you guys see that girl that got stung all over her body by the box jellyfish and she's gonna live. Its taking months recover but she's supposed to make a full recovery. The docs say even a slight brush should kill you and she was covered. Calling it a miricle. In anycase they need to be studying this girls genes and blood.
 
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