A SLIPPERY MESS

By Leah Bertler 7B

How did the BP oil spill occur? The oil spill started in the Gulf of Mexico and it happened on April 20, 2010. The BP oil

spill occurred by the very big bubble that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column. It caught on fire and it could not be controlled, eventually it cased the platform to sink. The idea of blowout was very low. The casing had been cemented, and people were working on getting a production pipe installed. A pressure surge and could not be controlled to drill a second well to intercept the first well, and inject a special heavy fluid to cut off the flow. The tools have all kinds of alarms, and a large 450 ton device called a blowout preventer, but it was still not possible to control the pressure flow.

What was being done to stop the flow of the oil?

To stop the flow of the oil spill they used a containment vessel. They also used six remote-controlled submarines. They tried lowering a huge, 78-ton steel-and-concrete dome over the pipe to catch the oil and funnel it to the surface. They were trying to use a sub sea robot to drill a second well to intercept the first well, and inject a special heavy fluid to cut off the flow. All these ways to stop the flow of the oil spill had worked!

What was being done to clean up the oil?

The clean up of the oil spill was a very difficult task. There were more than 2,000 people working on cleaning it up. They would do anything to get rid of it. To clean up all of the oil spill, it costs about 5 billion dollars. It took up to 6 weeks to get all of it cleaned up. They used skimmers to scoop oil, chemicals in the water to break up the heavy oils and they also used bombs to stop the oil spill from spreading everywhere in the water.

What are the environmental impacts of

the oil? The BP oil spill impacts the environment, because the oil spill happened outside

which polluted the environment. It also affects all of the sea creatures in the water because of the pollution. As a result, most of the water life have probably died. It also affected many people and it impacts the environment because the oil of the spill comes from the environment.

How does This relate to the AOI Health and Social Education?

The BP oil spill relates to the AOI health and social education because it affects people’s health by killing them and it also affects animals in the same way. I think it is very sad that this one thing happened and killed so many. The BP oil spill released about 39 million gallons of oil and killed around 200 endangered sea turtles and 316 birds and killed thousands of plants as well.

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