October 27, 2014 — Forty percent of the oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe was not consumed by bacteria and did not stay on the ocean’s surface due to the use of dispersants.
The oil sank to the ocean floor and remains there today. New research conducted by David L. Valentine with the University of California at Santa Barbara and colleagues proved that as much as forty percent of the oil still remains on the ocean floor. The discovery was reported in the Oct. 27, 2014, edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers examined 500 spots around the Macondo Well where the disaster began. The entire search area covered 1,235 square miles. The scientists searched for signs of hopane (17.alpha.(H)-21.beta.(H)-hopane) because this compound is known to be a marker for the biodegradation of crude oil. The results indicate that between four and 31 percent of the oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is still on the ocean floor. Estimates for the entire area that was contaminated are two million gallons.
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