Workers race to contain an oil slick that is threatening wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico
BY VICKIE AN
Cleanup crews are racing against the clock to contain a hazardous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The slick is the result of an explosion that occurred on April 20 aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The thick, black ooze is threatening miles upon miles of coastline in four states, and putting hundreds of species of wildlife in danger.
One Big Mess
There were 126 workers aboard the oil rig at the time of the blast. An oil rig is a large, offshore platform that is used to house workers and machines needed to drill oil wells in the ocean floor. Most of the workers escaped. Eleven people are missing. The cause of the explosion is under investigation. The rig was owned by Transocean Ltd., and operated by the energy company BP.
Since the blast, an estimated 42,000 gallons of oil have been spewing daily from an undersea well, located 5,000 feet below the disaster site. As of Monday, the sticky spill had grown to more than 1,800 square miles. That's larger than the state of Rhode Island. Oil from the leak may ooze up on the white-sand shores of Florida as early as this weekend.
"We've never seen anything like this magnitude," said George Crozier, executive director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. "The problems are going to be the beaches themselves. That's where it will be really visible."
Scientists and environmentalists worry about the huge impact of the slick on sea life in the area. The waters are home to a variety of marine animals, including dolphins, sea turtles and sea birds. Plant life can also suffer from the spill. "It's already a fragile system," says Mark Kulp, a geologist at the University of New Orleans in Louisiana. "It would be devastating to see anything happen to that system."
Cleaning Up
So far, remote-controlled submarines have been unable to shut off the oil well. Workers will begin drilling a relief well to reroute the oil on Thursday. The process could take months. Crews have been working since last week to skim oil from the water's surface, but time is starting to run out.
In a last-ditch effort, the Coast Guard planned to start burning off the oil slick on Wednesday. Workers will use fireproof containment booms, or a string of floating barriers, to rein in some of the thicker oil. Then they will set it on fire. This will cause the oil to harden into balls of tar that can be removed from the water more easily. Authorities do no expect the burn area to affect marine life. The total cost of the cleanup could add up to $1 billion
Max-This disastrous oil spill spilled a few thousand gallons of oil, and it blasted at that time. Because the disaster was close from the Louisiana coast, so marine animals and some land animals are in danger. Without the oil spill, we know that these animals are safe. When the oil is on the sea, many fish cannot breathe because there is not enough oxygen, and even die. Sometimes the birds will also have oil on their wings and can’t fly, and will be stuck on the shore. Also, after the oil spill, many pieces of land are been covered with oil, so they might clean up the scene. Every day, it still leaked a few thousand gallons of oil, so there might be a bigger area of land covered with oil. This oil spill may cost a lot of money by just only cleaning up. There must cost more money by saving animals from extinction.
2010/04/30
2010/04/23
An Undersea Census
An Undersea Census
Scientists worldwide are conducting a survey of all marine life, large and small
BY VICKIE AN
While the U.S. government conducts a census of its citizens, scientists around the world have been carrying out a count of their own. But this census is a bit fishy. In fact, it's taking place in the deep blue sea!
More than 2,000 scientists from 80 nations are involved with the Census of Marine Life. Researchers kicked off the count in 2000. They hope to tally every living thing in the ocean--even creatures so small they are invisible to the naked eye. The findings of the 10-year survey will be reported on October 4, in London, England.
Little Things Count, Too
Since the census began 10 years ago, more than 5,000 new forms of marine life have been discovered. Census updates in the past have focused on bigger species, such as the city of brittle stars found off the coast of New Zealand. Now, researchers are zeroing in on the tinier creatures, such as microbes, zooplankton and seaworms.
How can you count something you can't even see? By collecting plenty of samples. Scientists have been studying samples of water from more than 1,000 different sites. Remote-controlled vehicles are also used to explore the ocean floor.
From the census, researchers have discovered that roundworms, a microscopic animal, rule the deepest and darkest parts of the sea bottom. They have also identified 7,000 species of zooplankton, a tiny animal that some call sea bugs. That number is expected to double in the final census report. "Scientists are discovering and describing an astonishing new world of marine microbial diversity and abundance," said Mitch Sogin, of the Marine Biological Laboratory, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Doing the Math
These creatures may be little, but there are a lot of them. An estimated nonillion of these microscopic creatures live in the oceans. What's a nonillion? In numbers, a nonillion is equal to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. (That's 30 zeroes!) That number is so big that a nonillion microscopic microbe cells weigh as much as 240 billion African elephants.
"Such findings make us look at the deep sea from a new perspective," says Pedro Martinez Arbizu, of the German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research. "Far from being a lifeless desert, the deep sea rivals such highly diverse ecosystems as tropical rainforests and coral reefs."
Max-Plankton, which they may be as smaller as we can’t see, but it is the food for most of the fish species, even sharks eat them for food. There are many kinds of plankton, some are big, and some are small. A few centuries before, we may not know this thing will be growing in the ocean, but now, we know that plankton really exists. Scientists use different kinds of ways, depending to its size. They may see and catch big plankton, but when finding small kinds of plankton, they just collect a cup of water to use a microscope to see the plankton. After we know that this ocean has a lot of plankton, we must protect them. Because when there is no plankton in this ocean, the food chain in the ocean will be destroyed, and sooner, all of the fish may die! Finding this plankton will give us a lot of knowledge.
Scientists worldwide are conducting a survey of all marine life, large and small
BY VICKIE AN
While the U.S. government conducts a census of its citizens, scientists around the world have been carrying out a count of their own. But this census is a bit fishy. In fact, it's taking place in the deep blue sea!
More than 2,000 scientists from 80 nations are involved with the Census of Marine Life. Researchers kicked off the count in 2000. They hope to tally every living thing in the ocean--even creatures so small they are invisible to the naked eye. The findings of the 10-year survey will be reported on October 4, in London, England.
Little Things Count, Too
Since the census began 10 years ago, more than 5,000 new forms of marine life have been discovered. Census updates in the past have focused on bigger species, such as the city of brittle stars found off the coast of New Zealand. Now, researchers are zeroing in on the tinier creatures, such as microbes, zooplankton and seaworms.
How can you count something you can't even see? By collecting plenty of samples. Scientists have been studying samples of water from more than 1,000 different sites. Remote-controlled vehicles are also used to explore the ocean floor.
From the census, researchers have discovered that roundworms, a microscopic animal, rule the deepest and darkest parts of the sea bottom. They have also identified 7,000 species of zooplankton, a tiny animal that some call sea bugs. That number is expected to double in the final census report. "Scientists are discovering and describing an astonishing new world of marine microbial diversity and abundance," said Mitch Sogin, of the Marine Biological Laboratory, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Doing the Math
These creatures may be little, but there are a lot of them. An estimated nonillion of these microscopic creatures live in the oceans. What's a nonillion? In numbers, a nonillion is equal to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. (That's 30 zeroes!) That number is so big that a nonillion microscopic microbe cells weigh as much as 240 billion African elephants.
"Such findings make us look at the deep sea from a new perspective," says Pedro Martinez Arbizu, of the German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research. "Far from being a lifeless desert, the deep sea rivals such highly diverse ecosystems as tropical rainforests and coral reefs."
Max-Plankton, which they may be as smaller as we can’t see, but it is the food for most of the fish species, even sharks eat them for food. There are many kinds of plankton, some are big, and some are small. A few centuries before, we may not know this thing will be growing in the ocean, but now, we know that plankton really exists. Scientists use different kinds of ways, depending to its size. They may see and catch big plankton, but when finding small kinds of plankton, they just collect a cup of water to use a microscope to see the plankton. After we know that this ocean has a lot of plankton, we must protect them. Because when there is no plankton in this ocean, the food chain in the ocean will be destroyed, and sooner, all of the fish may die! Finding this plankton will give us a lot of knowledge.
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