a topical geographical question.

[devonwoody]

The BP oil accident in the Gulf of Mexico is reported to have spilt 4 billion barrels of oil into the Gulf.

I believe a barrel of oil contains 65 gallons so that is 4 billions times 65 gallons which I estimate is 260 billions gallons of oil pollution.

How many billion gallons of seawater are there in the Gulf of Mexico, and what is the percentage of the pollution on above figures, oil to seawater?

 

[PeterBassett]

http://www.epa.gov/gmpo/about/facts.html

2,434,000 cubic kilometers of water or 6.43 * 10^17 gallons or 643 quadrillion gallons.

0.0000404%

That would be in US gallons.

I don't think that working our the amount of pollution as a percentage of total volume is of any use in this case.

 

[PeterBassett]

Also, I think the total is 5 Million barrels spilled in total. To that percentage goes down by a factor of one thousand.

 

[Noel]

I think latest US federal estimates is around 207 million US gallons leaked from the well before the recent capping.

 

[devonwoody]

Noel, 207 figure is not feasible, twenty million motorists in the UK use upto 10 gallons per week, that would mean that the oil well has produced one week of oil for the UK in three months?

 

[Noel]

Noel, 207 figure is not feasible, twenty million motorists in the UK use upto 10 gallons per week, that would mean that the oil well has produced one week of oil for the UK in three months?

Which is a good example of our thirst for the damn stuff, assuming your figures are accurate.

The Macondo well may not have been the most lucrative of wells, after all it was only an exploratory project rather than a fully fledged production facility.

 

[Sportique]

Don't overlook the fact that the Gulf of Mexico is not land-locked - so there will have been a significant water "change-out" with the Carribean Atlantic and ultimately the Pacific/Indian Oceans also ......

Dave

 

[Limey Lurker]

How much washes off Peter Stringfellow when he goes swimming?