Today’s issue of Science contains one of the most detailed assessments of the oil plume that was released into the Gulf of Mexico by the damaged oil well. The work, performed with a remotely operated submersible, showed that the plume remained intact for at least 35km and was subject to very little breakdown by microbes. Although that’s bad news in terms of the persistence of the oil, it’s good news for fish, in that the plumes are less likely to result in oxygen depletion.

The work was performed by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute who (along with a lone Australian) were in the region of the blown oil well in mid to late June. Using a tethered sensor set and the autonomous submersible Sentry, the authors performed over 5,800 mass spectrometer readings of the chemicals present in the area down-current of the leak site. Operations took place over approximately 10 days, until the arrival of Hurricane Alex ended the cruise.

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Read the original, in all its glory, right here:
Gulf oil spill plumes big, have staying power