Monday, May 3, 2010
Oceanographer "Cannot Think Of Any Scenario Where The Oil Doesn't Eventually Reach The Florida Keys"
As I explained in detail yesterday, the oil spill may be carried by the "loop current" to Florida:
How could the oil get all the way from Louisiana to Florida, where the Gulf
Stream flows?
As Discovery explains:Many ocean scientists are now raising concerns that a powerful current could spread the still-bubbling slick from the Florida Keys all the way to Cape Hatteras off North Carolina.A graphic from the Discovery article shows what the Gulf loop currentThese oceanographers are carefully watching the Gulf Loop Current, a
clockwise swirl of warm water that sets up in the Gulf of Mexico each spring and summer. If the spill meets the loop -- the disaster becomes a runaway."It could make it from Louisiana all the way to Miami in a week, maybe less." said Eric Chassignet, director of the Center for Ocean Atmospheric Prediction Studies at Florida State University. "It is pretty fast."
Right now, some computer models show the spill 30 to 50 miles north of the loop current. If the onshore winds turn around and push the oil further south: "That would be a nightmare," said Yonggang
Liu, research associate at the University of South Florida who models the current. "Hopefully we are lucky, but who knows. The winds are changing and difficult to predict." Imagine the loop current as an ocean-going highway, transporting tiny
plankton, fish and other marine life along a watery conveyor belt. Sometimes it even picks up a slug of freshwater from the Mississippi River -- sending it on a wandering journey up to North Carolina.The Gulf Loop Current acts like a jet of warm water that squirts in from the Caribbean basin and sloshes around the Gulf of Mexico before being squeezed out the Florida Strait, where it joins the larger and more powerful Gulf Stream current.
***
Oceanographer George Maul worries that the current could push the oil slick right through the Florida Keys and its 6,000 coral reefs.
"I looked at some recent satellite imagery and it looks like some of the oil may be shifted to the south," said Maul, a professor at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla. "If it gets entrained in the loop, it could spread throughout much of the Atlantic."
In fact, new animation from a consortium of Florida institutions and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, predicts a slight southward shift in the oil over the next few days.
looks like:
The Gulf Loop Current enters from
the Caribbean basin,
moves around the Gulf of Mexico and
exits out the
Florida Strait, where it joins
the more powerful Gulf Stream current.
Naval Oceanographic Office
According to ROFFS, the oil spill is getting close to the loop current:
Unfortunately, we may be only 24 hours away from oil entering the loop current. As AP writes today:
Scientists say the Gulf oil spill could get into the what's called the Loop
Current within a day, eventually carrying oil south along the Florida coast and
into the Florida Keys.
Nick Shay, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said Monday once the oil enters the Loop Current, it likely will end up in the Keys and continue east into the Gulf Stream.
***
Shay says he cannot think of any scenario where the oil doesn't eventually reach the Florida Keys.
As Orlando's Fox 35 notes:
Brevard County oceanographer, Mitchell Roffer is watching the oil on the
south end of the spill. He says it's starting to push into the gulf stream.
"Thats going to then get pulled around into the loop current then get pulled
down around the east side of loop current off of Tampa and into the Keys," said
Roffer.
He's tracking winds and currents to try to determine where and
when the oil slick hits Florida's East Coast. He says its only a matter of time.
"I think its a question of when, and my colleagues all believe the same thing, I don't believe it will be an if," Roffer said.
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Posts
Things you should know about who insures BP.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.businessinsider.com/bp-jupiter-insurance-2010-5
I suppose terrorists were responsible... north korean subs or maybe Iranian ? ..but not the greedy oil people ohh no,,
ReplyDeleteAn example of catastrophic potential of complexity.
ReplyDeleteI'd suspect a MOSSAD sub more than Korean. Remember, Vice Usurper Cheney's Haliburton is involved too.
ReplyDeleteEverything is going to $hit...
ReplyDeleteMay 3, 2010
Ron Paul and Alan Grayson: Audit the Fed!
http://tinyurl.com/2ezprwa
Wanna take a ride?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1367.htm
From another comment posted here -"An example of the catastrophic potential of complexity."
ReplyDeleteNo one, -not planners, -not politicians, -not business executives, -not scientists and not even the general public; -no one is excused for ignoring or trying to wish-away the obvious.
Offshore oil rigs are a disaster waiting to happen regardless ANY AMOUNT of scientific planning.
The unerring entropy of the infinite complexity of reality is a key component to our understanding of Categorical Knowledge.
MAKE NO MISTAKE, these offshore oil rigs are categorically immoral, -as are nuclear power plants, -genetic engineering -and- even most of our medical enterprises that "Health Care Reform" just funded to the tune of trillions of dollars.
If humanity is going to survive, (and this never seemed less likely than it does today) humanity then must forget about science -and embrace Categorical Knowledge.
Categorical Knowledge is that knowledge that is by definition true in every instance -without exception.
No scientific knowledge meets this strict measure of truth.
When something is known to be categorical true, no one can be excused for ignoring its truth at any time.
These offshore oil rigs are categorically immoral. They WILL prove a detriment to the future.
i would blame then dang cavemen living in Afghanistan. That'll work with Obama's lying capabilities. He's better than Bush at lying.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, if you go to the link below, you'll read a more up=front assessment of the disaster. They basically say there is no way to shut off the oil until it runs out, unless you nuke it...really.
We're screwed again folks. Plan on exorbitant food prices, especially meat products.
All because BP wanted to skirt a few pesky safety guidelines. Ah gee, I guess its OK as long as they continue to bribe our Congressmen...and skanks like Pelosi.
Yeah, I'm cynical. How could you not be with the inbred morons running this world.
Good luck.
I just heard that Legislation passed after the Valdez spill LIMITS THE LIABILITY TO something like 70 million - THAT'S MILLION dollars!!
ReplyDeleteGood old Washington - always looking out for the little guy....
WHO OWNS YOUR LEGISLATOR?? I mean besides the Israeli lobby....
Keep yo with what you do. Write the truth of America's failures which are many. Show who, where what when and how the failures began.
ReplyDeletePeople dont read because ads tout people dont have to read or even understand what they read.
People believe they can have it all because they are Americans and believing advertisements.
Watch your foods people. As original foods are contaminated more and more artificial additives will be added.
This growing oil spill has already killed the Gulf fishing industry and, will not only destroy the tourist industry in the region but possibly the entire east coast. These shoreline communities cannot survive without the fishing industry and vacationers.
ReplyDeleteImagine all of the damaged (condemned) beachfront property that will be bought and compensated for (at tax payers’ expense) at less than half of its current market value.
Then the government can sit on these acquired coastal region properties for 30 years and re-sell them for much more than the taxpayer paid for them.
However, this theory is only hypothetical, because neither our government nor BP would ever think to intentionally cause something this destructive to happen, let alone capitalize on a man-made crisis of this magnitude.