Topic: Deepwater spill survey: Scientists embark on methane-examining mission

[sam]

Editor's Note: A team of researchers led by John Kessler, Texas A&M University chief scientist and assistant oceanography professor, has traveled to the Deepwater Horizon disaster site to study the methane leaking into the Gulf of Mexico (along with tens thousands of barrels of crude oil) daily at the site of the damaged Macondo 252 well. Kessler, along with David Valentine (an assistant professor of marine sediment geochemistry, biogeochemistry and geomicrobiology at the University of California, Santa Barbara) and the rest of his colleagues are hoping to come away with a rough estimate of the spill's size by the time his team returns home on June 20, followed by more accurate estimates as they complete their analysis of the information collected. Other objectives of the expedition onboard the R/V Cape Hatteras include trying to determine how the methane might be removed from the water (whether eaten by waterborne microorganisms or released into the atmosphere) and how methane concentrations will change over time.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=deepwater-spill-survey-scientists-e-2010-06-14

[Clive]

I hope this gets sorted out very soon but an American oil guru said on TV yesterday that the cost of cleaning up the mess and the compensation represents just 1/100 the value of the oil.  We will all have to pay for it in higher oil prices so once again the puiblic are the losers. 

[Rik]

It's the one thing guaranteed in life, other than death and taxes of course.

[Simon]

And that a five minute job takes an hour on a computer.

[Rik]

Or two if it involves plumbing.

[Simon]

Plumbing on a computer? 

[Rik]

A water cooled one?

[Simon]

[Rik]