NOAA: Oil Tendril 'Likely' Headed Into Loop Current
By PAUL VOOSEN of Greenwire
Published: May 18, 2010A thin stem of oil stretching east from BP PLC's spill is increasingly likely to enter the Loop Current, a powerful Gulf of Mexico flow that runs past the Florida Keys and up the Atlantic Seaboard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief said today.
Stark satellite imagery released yesterday revealed that, while the large majority of oil remains bobbing off the Louisiana coast, "a tendril of light oil has been transported down toward the Loop Current," NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said.
In fact, oil may already be entrained in the current, Lubchenco said, and NOAA is sending imagery aircraft out today to determine the extent of the oil's drift.
Once oil is in the current, it would likely reach the Florida Keys within 10 days. By month's end, the oil could reach Miami, oceanographers have also warned.
"The oil, if it gets into the Loop Current, will become very, very dilute and will be highly weathered," she said, arriving at the Keys most likely in the form of tar balls and emulsified streamers.
via NYTimes.com
More quality reporting from the NYT! Further down in the article they mention that tar balls have *already* shown up in the Keys--the Washington Post already reported on tar balls in the Florida Keys back on the 19th. SIGH...
Meanwhile Marketwatch.com makes the threat of this oil tendril sound even worse:
May 19, 2010, 2:04 p.m. EDT
Gulf oil leak heading for Atlantic?
AccuWeather.com says Loop Current catching slick in Gulf of Mexico Explore related topics
By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatchNEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Weather forecasters and the U.S. Coast Guard are raising the prospect that the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico already may be swept up in a powerful current that could carry it into the Atlantic Ocean.
That news comes as the one-month anniversary of the leak looms on Thursday.
AccuWeather.com reported on Wednesday that part of the oil slick in the north-central Gulf of Mexico has been captured by the Loop Current, a fast river of water that curves around the southern trip of Florida, where the Gulf Stream heads north along the Atlantic Seaboard.
"Based on satellite imagery, it appears a significant part of the oil slick is tearing away and being drawn well to the south in the east-central Gulf of Mexico this week," said Alex Sosnowski, a senior expert meteorologist at AccuWeather.com.
via Marketwatch.com
So, it's conceivable that the east coast of the US may be facing a threat from this oil--not to mention all the other sea life that will be facing the threat, too.
That was all reported five days ago. Today I can't find anything specific about the oil heading out to the Atlantic, but I did spot this headline:
Florida's CFO wants govt. take over of oil spill response
Florida CFO Alex Sink Monday sent a letter to President Obama urging that he put his administration in full command of stopping the Deepwater Horizon oil leak and processing the claims for affected residents and businesses.>
via wjhg.com.
1st: The state of Florida has a Chief Financial Officer?
2nd: If Florida is starting to make demands, it means they feel they have cause to be worried.
The above is just a thumbnail of a pretty cool animation NYTimes.com has up that shows you how the oil spill has behaved. Of course, there's no way to get it exactly right, but it's still worth checking out...
I reeeally wish the USG would kick these corporate morons out of there and take charge. This is what governments are for, dammit! To protect us from disasters!!
I feel like if there's anything 911, Katrina and the BP Oil Spill has tought us, it's that our government really doesn't do a great job of keeping us safe.
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