The "Up to the Minute" BP Livefeed Discussion Thread

Do none of you know what oil leaking into the bedrock means?

Or are you just acting like snobs tonight?

I admit I am exhausted and ready to go to bed, but am waiting to hear from one of you because it is probably happening.

Originally posted by antar
Question please,

I am reading about the possibility of oil leaking into bedrock and that it would seriously make matters worse, can anyone tell me what will happen if this is the case?

Edit for sleep typing,

[edit on 21-7-2010 by antar]

I honestly have no idea. I'd be curious too, since it would be my assumption that the bedrock of this area is fractured and discontinuous in the Gulf. A leak in bedrock could impact groundwater. But I don't know why that would be worse than the current situation anyway. And since its under a salinated body of water....? Is the ground water in this area close enough to effect the ground water of the populated land nearby?

reply to post by Aeons


From the 53,000 google search hits I found they all say the same thing in that it will cause instabity in the area, but that was as much as I could gleen.

I want to know I guess if it is going to cause massive EQs or tsunami type disasters, or will it cause a methane exploision, I dont know so I hoped someone here might.

Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears

www.nytimes.com...

We know that during Geothermal drilling for renewable clean energy, the risks outweigh the technology...

It is only when they push the hot water into the hole that they have problems, so what if oil goes into the bedrock? Explosions and massive EQs?

I dont know.

Well this was days ago.

BP-Halliburton-Transocean-Well is loosing 60% or 9824psi of oil and gas pressure to the rock strata in the Gulf of Mexico. Chris Landau (geologist) The well structure is obviously gushing oil and gas in large quantities. Here is why. 14.7 pounds per square inch equals 1 atmosphere which is equivalent to 32.8 feet of water or 10.3 meters of water. This also equates to an 8.5 pound per gallon mud weight (density) or 0.45 pounds per square inch (psi) per linear foot. The well is 18360 feet deep. If the well was filled with water it would have a pressure of 8262 psi at the base. If it was filled with drilling mud with a mudweight (density) of 17 lbs per gallon while drilling took place, in order to keep the gas and oil out of the well, it would have had to have a pressure of roughly twice that of water at 16524 psi or roughly 0.9 pounds per square inch increase in pressure per linear foot with depth. At 5000 feet BP is reporting a pressure of 6700 psi. This pressure is not even equivalent to that of seawater pressure at the bottom of the well or 8262 psi. We know that when the drilling crew substituted sea water for drilling mud, the blow out occurred. So the pressure in this well is obviously much higher than 8262 psi. So we know that this well is losing gas and oil pressure at 16524psi minus 6700psi which equals 9824 psi. That means a minimum of 9824 psi of gas and oil is escaping into the formation or 59.45% of the oil and gas being generated is being lost. So only 40.55 per cent of the total gas and oil is being held back. Roughly 60 % of the oil and gas is escaping through the casing into the formation. This oil and gas will be coming up very soon either along side the casing or through fractures in the sea floor.

OpenNews

I have no clue how accurate that article is.

I think that there is oil and gas seeping through causing destabilization of surrounding area. Relief wells must be successful one way or another. If they take too much time before getting it sealed/tapped , who knows .. maybe the sea floor actually could collapse, but I'm more worried about a hurricane sucking up what's already out there. It seems much more probable in my mind.

Just an opinion.

Anyone feel free to say otherwise.

I invite it.

reply to post by antar


Well it could mean any number of things...we'd have to know how much is seeping, from where, how many places from, and etc...if you want to believe the conspiracy theory, it would cause a massive eruption in the seafloor, causing massive cracks whereas the oil and methane would all seep up at once causing a massive tsunami to wash over the southern US, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Truth is no one knows what would really happen. Methane always leaks from the seafloor but at this rate? No. Go back a page or two for some links to stories on scientists conducting tests for methane and how its 100 to 100,000 times more greater on the shores and in the water than before the disaster. The concerns are if it builds up too much it could ignite causing a massive explosion. Regardless methane is more dangerous than carbon dioxide and is harmful to breathe I believe...so its still toxic even if it does not explode. The oil itself it toxic too...so until it happens, there is no way to say.

If oil is leaking from the seafloor, and IF there was no seepage prior to the disaster, then it means the well its contained in under the seafloor, is damaged beyond repair and the cap on the riser will make it seep like never before making the oil impossible to stop and clean up essentially killing the Gulf of Mexico...

There has been talk as to how bad the "media blackout" from the Gulf of Mexico is. Well I just saw this graph on Google news and it is quite astounding in my opinion. This first screen capture is only a search of the last 30 days on Google trends for 'Gulf of Mexico oil spill' and notice the decline since June to almost zero:



This graph I saw today just a few minutes ago on Google news. This one is much more dramatic, but only shows from July 14. It shows a steep decline to actually near if not close to zero (this graph looks more like zero)



So would it be safe to say the MSM just doesn't care anymore? I think so..this just shows how much they don't care.

The US government has ordered oil giant BP to offer a plan for opening the capped oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, after a seep was found threatening to leak into the bedrock.

www.presstv.ir...

This is typical of the articles found online about the "Oil, seeping into the Bedrock"

I am not sure, but it sounds as if that means it is moving 'under' the sea floor or at least there is a possibility and that was where my question arrises from.

Anyway, I do thank you guys for attempting to help me out here, and btw I have been reading the entire thread and check in often to catch up. Done stared and flagged it long ago.

reply to post by antar


Funny that article says: "I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed," - Thad Allen July 19, 2010.

July 20, 2010: Detected oil leaks from BP's broken well not a major concern, officials say

"Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is leading the response, said several small leaks and seeps had been detected, but none was of great concern."

And they get another 24 hours to "test" the cap...ok seriously? And the hydrocarbon buildup is nothing? Give me a break. We are being lied to, and they got away with it.

[edit on 21-7-2010 by DragonFire1024]

you can see natural formed plumes appearing as white circles leaking very small amounts of oil
leaks from fractures are more explosive eruptions, since the ROV's are stationed at the Explorarity well your going to see much unless they start siemetic scans when they venture away from there that is when you see the eruptions occuring , any oil leaking or eruptions they will pan away or use the ROV's to fan it away.

since we are montoring them they being very careful what they show us

reply to post by mr20121221


Careful? More like careless. They are showing NOTHING. The same spots for HOURS or days. Its ridiculous. If they don't want to do this job properly then they can find others who will. Simple as that.

Originally posted by antar

Anyway, I do thank you guys for attempting to help me out here, and btw I have been reading the entire thread and check in often to catch up. Done stared and flagged it long ago.

I am no Geologist but I did learn from the best.

in my experience when we go to bedrock it is to start a build on good soil that is almost as hard as rock and consistent in density and moisture usually we know what type of soil for the area it should be.

now I have seen water effect bedrock many times and like anything liquid moving through a hard surface it will look for the easy way out. I.E. natural seeps, the natural seeps are most likely layered above the bedrock with some natural fractures or different soils.
so what I would imagine happening is what I have actually seen happen with water in dry soil.
I think the oil might seep into the bedrock not much though. Most likely the oil will erode a path through the loose soil and creating a hydraulic effect that will actually lift the sea floor off of the bedrock, on second thought this is underwater so there is also the possibility the pressure will push down on the now loose oil saturated bedrock into the cavern or spongy soil that contained the oil below.
what I explained can be called liquefaction and happens alot.

hope that helps..

[edit on 7/21/2010 by -W1LL]

So we must all come to the realization that the well is (for the most part) stopped. We can also expect the sea floor to (for the most part) stop - once they complete the bottom kill.

Now we are faced with - How long will it take for the Gulf to recover?

Hurricanes?

GOOD = Increase speed of oil degradation.

BAD = Tidal surge pushes oil inland.

Originally posted by FearNoEvil
So we must all come to the realization that the well is (for the most part) stopped. We can also expect the sea floor to (for the most part) stop - once they complete the bottom kill.

Now we are faced with - How long will it take for the Gulf to recover?

Hurricanes?

GOOD = Increase speed of oil degradation.

BAD = Tidal surge pushes oil inland.

you forgot Hurricanes = horrible - sea spray can carry ocean water up and inland 3000'-5000' it wont be just salt water it will be that nice cocktail of corexit methane oil and warm sea water, I know it is said that it cannot happen but when I think of this mixture becoming sea spray and blowing around in a hurricane, I think of a carburetor mixing air and fuel to the perfect mix for ignition, and well lighting kinda reminds me of a spark plug..

[edit on 7/22/2010 by -W1LL]

Originally posted by piercebitchone
reply to post by Ditch_007

 

Interesting that you noticed that. I have been watching the quakes since the spill and have noticed that too. I have no idea why I have put the two together but, I am sure glad I am not the only one.

I wasn't aware of the quakes until my husband alerted me today. I rarely speak to him about the spill because he just doesn't want to talk about it.
Then I happened to mention being on Richard C. Hoagland's Facebook page and concerns about sea floor collapse and tsunamis, and he made the correlation between the spill being capped and the earthquakes... I guess we'll see...

reply to post by -W1LL

Look at the bright side. The more oil/Corexit we get on land, the less in the Gulf - the sooner the sea life recovers.

At least there is a bright side.

More evidence the oil may already have gotten into the gulf stream. Taken May 24...Florida panhandle in upper right...notice the slick go down towards the stream at the bottom right.

For some background information, this is excellent. Sonar scans, seafloor mappings...the works.

Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007

oceanexplorer.noaa.gov...

I like using Live Ships Map - AIS - Vessel Traffic and zooming into the Deepwater site. You can match up the ships positions with what you're seeing on the ROV feeds.

The other neat thing about this site is that you can click on the vessel and show it's track. I try to find the Survey ships and see what their tracks are doing. I've been watching it on and off for the last couple of days and they are doing sweeps around the well out to about a 4 mile radius. The Ridley Thomas is doing sweeps around the well and the War Admiral is doing sweeps to the NE of the well at about 2-4 miles in NW-SE tracks as I write this post.

So the seeps must be to the NE of the well as stated in several reports, however after watching a few days of this they must also be concerned about more seaps around the well as they've spent a lot of time running sonar sweeps around the well.

I will keep an eye on this.

from 21 July sott.net

Gulf of Mexico Loop Current Broken! Risk of Global Climate Change By BP Oil Spill !

www.sott.net...

The way this is written and presented on YT makes it sound sensationalist, but here is the opening excerpt:

Factual satellite images in the past several weeks are showing that the Gulf Loop Current is broken and may cease to function entirely! This will result in massive climate change and possibly an ice age for Europe! Major trouble brewing?? More freakish weather on its way??

youtube link: www.youtube.com...