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MNeagle
10th June 2010, 06:13 PM
HOUSTON – Researchers studying the flow of oil from the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico said Thursday that as much as twice the amount of oil than previously thought may have been spewing into the sea since an oil rig exploded nearly two months ago.

It is the third — and perhaps not last — time the federal government has had to increase its estimate of how much oil is gushing.

The spill — before June 3 when a riser was cut and then a cap put on it — was flowing at daily rate that could possibly have been as high as 2.1 million gallons, twice the highest number the federal government had been saying, according to U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt, who is coordinating estimates.

The estimates are not near complete yet and different scientific teams have come up with different numbers. A new team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute came in with higher estimates than all the others.

The Woods Hole estimate, which ranged from 1 million gallons a day to 2.1 million gallons, was based on calculations of pressure. And if the high end of the Woods Hole estimate is true, that means the oil spill is about to reach the 100 million gallon mark since the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill.

With all sorts of estimates, some even smaller than the amount collected by BP in its containment cap, McNutt said the most credible range at the moment is between 840,000 gallons and 1.68 million gallons. Then in a telephone press conference, she added that it was "maybe a little bit more."

"Our scientific analysis is still a work in progress," McNutt said.

The previous estimates had put the range roughly between half a million and a million gallons a day, perhaps higher.

No estimates were given for the amount of oil gushing from the well after the June 3 riser cut, which BP said would increase the flow by about 20 percent. Nor are there estimates since a cap has been put on the pipe, already collecting more than 3 million gallons.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100610/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_flow

Hatha Sunahara
10th June 2010, 07:45 PM
I watched a documentary on this crisis on the Discovery Channel this afternoon. I wasn't aware of how high the pressure was at the well head. It would have to be enormous to overcome the weight of a 5000 foot column of water above it. They cannot send people down there because of that pressure. They are at the leading edge of technology with this crisis, and because of it's severity, it has to be resolved quickly. The media and the government in concert are raising the level of fear here--just like with the color coded terror alerts.

The government also said that using a nuclear explosion is not being considered. I think they already decided to use a nuclear device, and they are now building support by scaring everybody about the global environmental effects of the oil.

I would not be one bit surprised if within the next 30 days they will have everything set up to use a fairly powerful nuke to plug the well.

I would support that decision. I doubt it would do more environmental damage than the spilling oil. Not if there are nukes that produce such little radiation as the ones that were used to demolish the WTC buildings. TPTB just want everybody demanding this problem be fixed. They probably already have the nuke in place, and they're just waiting for the politicians to tell them to pull the trigger. That will fix the leak, and everybody will be happy except the people who will be watching the pelicans with birth defects a few years from now wondering what's happening.

Am I thinking exactly the way TPTB want me to? Maybe this whole thing is a hoax, an excuse for a deep water nuclear test blast, and they need public support in case anything goes wrong.

Have you noticed how the crises are piling up? And they are being patched up with band aids and public relations (perception management AKA propaganda) campaigns? I wonder what's next. Nobody in power seems to be worried about money, or who's going to pay for things. It will reach some sort of crescendo. I'm pretty sure the oil leak will get fixed before we reach the grand finale of SNAFUs.


Hatha