Oil fate and mass balance for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Simulating and Quantifying Multiple Natural Subsea CO2 Seeps at Panarea Island (Aeolian Islands, Italy) as a Proxy for Potential Leakage from Subseabed Carbon Storage Sites

“…To decrease the memory requirement, particles exiting the spatial range plotted on Figure a−c by more than 50 m distance were immediately “forgotten” by the Lagrangian model, which simultaneously tracked a total of ∼2 × 10 6 parcels within the simulated domain. Simulations at Station PCTD3 used D x = D y = 10 –2 m 2 s –1 (based on Okubo’s diagram , ), and D z = 10 –3 m 2 s –1 (based on a value selected for the energetic sea-surface upper 40-m layer, in good agreement with values selected in other studies).…”

“…Simulation of the fate of aqueous CO 2 uses a Lagrangian advection and a random-walk model, similar to previous studies of CO 2 releases in the sea , and dissolved chemicals during oil spills . In a Lagrangian model, the continuous concentration field is simulated by tracking discrete Lagrangian parcels of dissolved CO 2 having a three-dimensional position and infinitesimal size.…”

Sunlight-driven dissolution is a major fate of oil at sea

“…Our estimate of oil photo-dissolution is likely conservative because it only includes dissolution of oil in floating slicks, neglecting potential contributions from oil entrained in surface waters. Entrainment, consisting of oil dispersed into the 40-m GoM surface mixed layer ( 22 ) by both natural dispersion and chemical dispersants, was by far the most important fate process for DwH surface oil, affecting 33 to 75% of the oil ( 20 , 22 ). A value at the lower range of these variable estimates is more likely because these estimates do not take into account the reduced effectiveness of chemical dispersants due to photo-oxidation ( 6 ).…”

“…The absence of data on this process likely contributed to the conclusion of the 2003 National Academy of Sciences report that chemical transformations of oil by sunlight are "unimportant from a mass balance consideration" (19). Given the wide uncertainty ranges in the mass balance of even a well-studied spill, such as DwH, there is room for an unaccounted-for process (e.g., photo-dissolution) to explain gaps in a mass balance and refine estimates for other fate processes (20)(21)(22).…”

Emulating Deep-Sea Bioremediation: Oil Plume Degradation by Undisturbed Deep-Sea Microbial Communities Using a High-Pressure Sampling and Experimentation System

“…It is estimated that about 41% of the hydrocarbons that were discharged during the DWH remained below the sea surface and were degraded [7]. Subsea dispersant application was associated with a decrease in the accumulation of surfaced oil above the wellhead [8] and significantly enhanced the entrapment of oil in the water column.…”