When oil is extracted from the ground, it contains a large amount of methane. Excess methane is usually removed by engineers before the crude oil is refined.
The methane that is gushing from the broken well is dissolving into the seawater. Although methane occurs naturally in sea water, excessive amounts can encourage the growth of microbes. Microbes can deplete water of oxygen needed to support marine life.
“At some locations, we saw depletions of up to 30 percent of oxygen based on its natural concentration in the waters. At other places, we saw no depletion of oxygen in the waters. We need to determine why that is,” said Texas A&M University oceanography professor John Kessler, who is part of the research team.
READ THIS STORY AT REUTERS.COM
Continue reading Reuters: Very high methane levels in the Gulf of Mexico
Soil tests on a handful of Sierra Nevada trails located near abandoned mines have revealed extremely high levels of lead, arsenic and asbestos, said researchers at the Sierra Fund, an environmental advocacy group.
Louisiana-based judge Martin Feldman, who yesterday overturned President Obama’s six-month drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico because it assumed that all deepwater drilling was as dangerous as BP’s, was revealed today to have had shares in Transocean and other firms in the industry.
