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'Top Hat' Dome at Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Site - BP
A new steel container dome has been placed beside the damaged oil well polluting the Gulf of Mexico since last month's drilling rig disaster, BP says.
Aerial view of the Discoverer Enterprise deepwater drillship (which is capable of drilling a well more than 6.5 miles beneath its drill floor), at the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon platform disaster in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana on May 9, 2010. (AFP/Mark Ralston) Dubbed the "top hat", it is
smaller than a first container dome which had to be set aside after
becoming blocked by crystallised gas hydrates.
It is on the seabed but is being kept away from the well for now, BP said.
Some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day have been leaking into the sea from the damaged well.
The dome is meant to funnel some of the escaping oil to a waiting tanker on the surface.
"The 'top hat' was lowered to the seabed floor last night and is presently... in the immediate area of the leak and the plan is to have that positioned over the leak and functioning by the end of the week," BP's Bryan Ferguson told AFP news agency.
Blame exchanged
Eleven people died when an explosion - thought to have occurred after a surge of methane gas from deep within the well - destroyed the Deepwater Horizon rig on 20 April.
On Tuesday, BP and other oil industry executives traded blame in Congress as the battle to contain the spill continued in the Gulf.
The British oil giant told a Senate hearing that a crucial safety device made by drilling contractor Transocean had failed.
Senators heard Transocean argue in turn that BP had been in charge and that a third firm, a BP contractor, did not plug the exploratory well properly.
President Barack Obama was said by the White House to be "deeply frustrated" the oil leak had yet to be stopped.
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48 Comments so far
Show AllPresident Obama is "deeply frustrated" that the leak hasn't been stopped, according to the White House.
Words fail me right now.....
I had exactly the same reaction. Except to say that empty rhetoric may be the only thing this damn fool is any good at.
What a bunch of blithering idiots Democrats have been. Electing the emptiest suit in the universe of party politicians as their leader.
We're unbelievably screwed as a nation if this mad situation with the elites electing each other to destroy the nation for the sake of the aristocracy does not come to an end.
Indeed, Ray!
It is all about learning....
And of course, 'not learning'. Which is itself a kind of learning. Just with different results.
yes, this event is troubling me much more than I expected...
a loved one bleeds uncontrollably...
slowly...
senselessly...
interminably...
and cures proposed rival the problem...
perhaps the new dome will work...
Someone posted on this subject here, the other day. And the last sentence was "Jesus wept".
yeah, it was a good post.........................
coco, was it your post?
I used to think of myself as a humanist, then I read a book by Dave Foreman. He used the term biophiliac; the love of all life. It was a better fit. After all these years of telling people the value of Nature and showing them the possibilities of a simpler lifestyle by living one, it has become obvious that they just don't care. They are hopelessly disconnected from Nature, (their true Mother and true Father) to the detriment of all other life forms. Anymore, I am following Nature's example toward Homo sapien sapien; indifference.
Time to put a similar top hat on Obama. OK, correction: put one over both political parties.
The flow rate being used by the engineers on site at this disaster is 25 000 bbl/day, not 5 000.
Any bets this 'top hat' gets flicked of the leak in short order, and BP goes with 'Plan D'?
Galenwainwright, so now, if I understand, you're saying that we've got two "Doomsday Machines" running in parallel at the same time:
The financial 'Doomsday Machine' that's running wild on Wall Street, infecting the whole world with its uncapped 'top hat' of debt bombs spurting out at a rate of about 100 billion in debt bomb flow per day, and ...
This second oily oceans 'Doomsday Machine' that's running wild in the Gulf, infecting the whole world's oceans with its uncapped 'top hat' of oil bombs spurting out at a rate of 1.5 million gallons per day.
Maybe we should start a betting 'pool' (no pun intended) to bet on whether the oily 'Doomsday Machine' disaster, or the debt bomb 'Doomsday Machine' disaster will cover the whole world with the shit of greed and stupidity first.
So far it looks like the Pin-Strip-Pricks of Wall Street are winning in this informal 'fuck-the-world' betting pool of negative externality poop.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Ray Duran said "What a bunch of blithering idiots Democrats have been. Electing the emptiest suit in the universe of party politicians as their leader."
Actually, as sorry as this sounds, I am afraid that this may have been the least empty suit in the running. I mean who are you thinking would have been an improvement for the Democrats?
None.
There is no "improving the democrats."
Nor will the Republicans ever come 'round to sanity.
This system is broken, except for the already rich.
Criticizing Mr. Duran plays into their hands.
The "solution" will not be accomplished by conventional politics, but by either a populist revolt or the death of the biosphere which supports us.
My money's on biosphere death.
Obama's "deeply frustrated" the leak has not been stopped? Does he even read the press? Right from the beginning oil experts have been saying that it will take a minimum of three months to drill a relief well that MAY relieve pressure and slow the flow rate.
At this point that's all they got. These silly dome caps are nothing but a band aid on a severed artery, a ridiculous attempt to show the world that they are trying.
But what do I know.
Here's my two cents on how to stop this thing.
Pile sandbags on it!
They could be lowered maybe 10 at time and dropped on the site with the remote subs helping to guide them in place. The sandbags would continue to be dumped onto the leak until it stopped. Maybe it would take 100 sandbags or maybe 1000. But you just keep piling them on until the leak stops.
There should be lots of sandbagging technology in the area already because of Katrina, etc., so getting the stuff to the site should be easy!
How 'bout them apples?
Even if it took 10K sandbags or 100K it sounds like the best idea I've heard so far, or certainly the cheapest. Another poster has suggested a series of pumps encircling the blowhole. These pumps would operate tangentially to the hole to create a vortex that would work to keep the oil in a "gyre" directly above the blowhole and on the surface where it could be pumped into tankers or burned. I think it's a great "high tech" idea that might well work. Your idea is much more "low tech" but it just might work as well. Enough weight has to be piled on top of the well such that it overcomes the pressure at the well head. It is definitely worth trying.
The pump-induced gyre or vortex would have to be a mile in height in order to express itself at the surface. I don't think that the person who proposes this appreciates the scale of pump-induced stirring required to produce a vortex extending up throuth a mile of water.
Plus, the oil is leaking from three widely spaced points along the crumpled mile-long riser.
Whe I increasingly hear of such physically-impractical ideas, I can ony think it is an effect of computer technolgy - particularly computer games and such. What is "simulated" on a computer game or a computer-generated film like Avatar rarely obeys the laws of physics - they are fantasies of an artist - not a scientific depiction of things.
You may be correct. Still, I think it's useful to float as many ideas out there as we can. Eventually someone may come up with something that will work.
Brilliant!
And they could get the sand from Iraq.
American sand is at present taken.
Full of American heads.
Oh, oh, but what the DU in it from exploded shells...
a conservative estimate is that the well has an underbalance pressure of about 7000 psi.
7000 psi will lift 7000ft of rock on dry land. with 5000 feet of water the sand bags would need to be piled 4000ft above sealevel. yep a 9000ft high pile of sand bags would be needed(good old Archimedes for ya).
sadly the only way to stop it is to cement it in from the bottom to the top from below. that means drilling the relief well. everything else is simply for show.
Think about 7000 psi for a moment. try blocking a garden hose with your hand. thats only 50psi. 7000 would cut a hole right through your hand.
Hey that's essentially what I said in a conversation with some of my friends on FB....the only difference being that I suggested starting with boulders and finishing with gravel and sand and just burying it...but your idea of sandbags would do just as well...anything but bombing it...I think that would just open it up even worse
Tell Congress: No More Drilling -- Clean Energy Now!
No More Drilling
True Majority
You're probably just as saddened and outraged as we are about the Gulf Oil Catastrophe unfolding due to the BP offshore oil rig explosion. The mounting damage to local wildlife, ecosystems on the brink of destruction, and the thousands of Gulf Coast residents whose lives have been ruined show just how deadly our addiction to oil and other dirty fossil fuels has become.
It's time to turn that outrage into action to make sure that BP cleans up its mess and we finally kicks our dirty fuels habit for good by embracing clean energy. Thanks to True Majority for their work in promoting this important campaign to stop offshore oil drilling for our clean energy future.
And since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's what we want you to do:
1. Click here to print our sign: "NO MORE DRILLING. CLEAN ENERGY NOW" (.pdf)
http://www.1sky.org/files/OilSpill_RallySign.pdf
2. Take a picture of yourself with the sign in front of the closest BP gas station
(or any gas station if you don't have a BP near you)
3. Send us your picture and fill out the short webform below to let us know you took action. We'll take care of delivering your picture to Congress. Send your picture(s) to this email address:
tmphotos@1sky.org
That's it: three easy steps, one powerful message. Now, help us keep track of how we tell the story for no more drilling. Fill in your information below to let us know you're taking action and sending in your photo.
"Deeply frustrated?" Interchangeable with "deeply troubled", when he's annoyed at some one-like Karzai, and equally effective.His frustration is going to scare the crap out of BP, and any one else who's listening.
The president is middle-management at best. He has undoubtedly been told by his masters to just stay low key and go with the program. He does as he's told because he knows if he does there will be a HUGE pot o' gold waiting for him at the end of the rainbow after his term ends, probably in 2012.
I am "deeply frustrated" with the US government.
I'm thinking of a "strongly worded" letter to the powers that be.
Yes...That's the ticket.
0 is "deeply frustrated."
about a mile deep?
good one...
maybe he's upset that the leak has left his 'deep lie' frustrated?
As a resident of Houston who stayed in town through hurricane Ike I warn all responders that the occurrence of even a moderately strong hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico at a time when the oil leak has not yet been "plugged" will be worse than Dante's inferno. Are any preparations being made for that eventuality? I doubt it. Mr. Obama has lived most of his adult life in Chicago where hurricanes do not occur. In fact, who at the highest levels of his cabinet are from the Gulf coast?
Some 'experts' are saying that a hurricane would be a 'good thing' because it would 'disperse the oil'. Wow. Great. Where will the 'dispersed' oil go? Hurricanes suck up billions of tons of water as they move across the gulf of mexico. Then they dump that water all over the south coast. Oil is lighter than water. It will be sucked up by the millions of tons right along with the water. Then the oil will be 'dispersed' -- right along with the water. You can look on the 'net and find different opinions from diverse 'experts'. Some say that oil on the surface will limit the amount of surface water and oil sucked up into the hurricane, but it is all speculation and 'theory' and 'hypothesis'. I fear that we will soon have a wonderful opportunity to prove or disprove these hypotheses.
Couldn't it be killed with Drones!
That seems to be their answer to everythingelse?
>^^<
Today in west FL, tampabay.com, website for the St. Pete Times. Two articles, "Coast Guard opens oil spill command post in St. Pete". Also states BP has rented 100 rooms from now to 6/15/10. Second articale, "Oil Protest, heald Wens. at St. Pete BP station by seizeBP.org. People get ready, it's coming. Approx. 20 rallies were held nationwide by seizeBP, there were 3 in FL., Tallahassee, St. Pete, and Ft. Lauderdale that I know of here. Floridians are used to getting ready for disasters, and will show up. But it's still a truly heart breaking shame, all for oil.
USA Today reported:
"During Congressional hearings today, Rep. Bart Stupid, D-Mich., chairman of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said evidence gathered in the investigation of the spill showed that the blowjob preventer apparently had been compromised by poor maintenance and other modifications."
Well, there we have it. Rep. Bart Stupid has finally identified and named the seminal cause of this latest (nth) unprecedented, and “totally unpredictable” shock and disaster in ( ____ fill in the blank _____) of our country ---- which just like the hundred other “financial crises” in the US, the “Greek Crisis”, the “Portugal crisis”, the coming “Euro Crisis”, the “Oil slick crisis”, the “Afghanistan crisis”, the “(un)Supreme Court corporate-campaign-unlimited-cash crisis”, the “unemployment crisis”, and “jobs crisis”, and “foreclosure crisis”, the “debt crisis”, the 'Iraq Tet crisis', the 'mortgage crisis', the 'health care crisis', etc. etc. were all caused by some totally unpredicted and unpredictable little 'pass the blame', 'no one's really at fault', problem with some complex mechanical blowjob preventer.
When in fact, Mr. Bart Stupid, and all you other stupids in Congress and the corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE that you are all blowing for cash, --- the real problem was caused PRECISELY by the fact that you complicit pricks have sold-out our dream of democracy to this fucking EMPIRE!.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Gross Negligence: Rep. Waxman of Ca. stated today in House hearings that, "...we have learned from Cameron, the manufacture of the blowout preventer, that the device had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system and a defectively configured ram ..."
Why was a defective blowout preventer installed? Remember, decision was made not to install a backup acoustic coupler also? GROSS NEGLIGENCE!!!!!!!!
This better not end up to be another industry bailout. No tax dollars should be used to pay for the gross negligence of the oil industry. Get on it Obama.
WAXMANS NOSE! YES! send that down it should be big enough to plug the leak!
and we wouldn't have to see him on TV anymore (BONUS!)
>^^<
"A SILK STOCKING FULL OF MANURE":
OBAMA
BP
TRANSOCEAN
CAMERON INTERNATIONAL CORP.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INFERIOR
KEN SALAZAR
MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE
CONGRESS
ETC
If they detonated a nucular device over the well it might just close it up by heat fusion. Anyone got a stupider answer? Oh yeah...BP.
Everyone get some chewing gum. We'll make a giant ball of gum and plug the leak with it. How did it take this long to come up with this great idea?
I fear that this "spill" will go on for months until they finally use what should have been PLAN A. I am not sure what plan of action is necessary to stop that much pressure, but if they can find a puddle of oil underneath five thousand feet of water and who knows how much soil, then they, the so called "experts" should have some idea. I say should, they couldn't fathom that such a disaster could ACTUALLY happen, so why waste the money and efforts to have such a plan devised.
God, I hope they have something "fixed" before a hurricane happens, can you imagine oil rain?
Actually, some experts claim a weak hurricane would be good...it would disperse the slick and allow natural processes to break it down faster.
Disperse it. Exactly. Break it up into very fine particles. Then, where do these petro-particles go? Supposedly a lot of it evaporates. Great. Carcinogenic petro-particles for all to breathe. And some of it, the heavier particles sink to the ocean floor where they are absorbed by shrimp, oysters and all other sea creatures which will then be eaten by creatures further up the food chain including human beings. So, yes, I can absolutely see the benefits of a small, or any other size for that matter, hurricane. I have a feeling we'll have a sad opportunity to test all of these theories (hurricane versus oil slick and what happens) before too much longer if they don't stop the blow hole.
inside job - halliburden or what their name
the trillion dollars military cant plug the 1 m hole - ridicules
We keep hearing 200,000 gallons a day from the spill. That can't be right, can it?
There are 86400 seconds in a day. Do the math- 200,000/86400= 2.31 gallons a second.
That 2.3 gallons a second does not sound like a high pressure gusher to me. If this is coming out of 3 hole like BP says it is that is only .77 gallons a second for each hole. That is not very much pressure. Does this make sense to you guys out there? Also why haven't videos of the leaks been released? I think the Navy has subs down there.
We need to quit calling it a leak!
It's a gusher!
The casing is 7" at the bottom of the well, 36" where it comes out at the top. (Download the schematic below)
http://www.roughneckcity.com/uploads
/ProbertTestimony_5-11-2010.pdf
At what pressure??? 2 gallons a second??? lol
"Some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day have been leaking into the sea from the damaged well."
This is total bullshit and I'm tired of it!! Lies and lies and more lies.
MSNBC has been showing a video of the oil gushing from one of the 'leaks'. The oil is boiling out at very high pressure, literally a geyser. They said that the opening they were showing us is 31 inches in diameter.
Okay. Imagine a container, cylindrical in shape, 31 inches in diameter. If we pour oil into that container, how deep a pool must we create to hold one gallon in the bottom of the container? The short answer is just a small fraction over .3 inches. (See calculations below.)
So, consider the following. A column of oil 31 inches in diameter is shooting out of the blow hole at high pressure. Every .3 inches of that vertically moving column represents one gallon of oil, or a little over 3 gallons of oil per vertical inch of oil spewing from the hole.
If you watch the MSNBC video it is obvious that the hole is spewing way more than the 2.43 gallons per second we are being told (210,000 gallons divided by 86,400 seconds per day).
One can only estimate the flow in inches per second when watching the video. Just keep in mind that every inch of oil blown out of that hole represents about three gallons. My own estimate is at least several feet a second are blowing out of the sea floor.
For the sake of argument, let's underestimate the flow by a wide margin. Let's say that two vertical feet per second are blowing out of the 31 inch pipe (I believe it is much more than that.) That amounts to, at 3 gallons per inch, an amount of oil equal to 72 gallons per second. 72 gallons per second times 86,400 seconds per day is equal to 6,220,800 gallons per day. That amounts to an Exxon Valdez spill every two days. But, as I said, for the sake of discussion we assumed a very much lower, slower flow than that which I believe is really occurring. We are facing a the most horrendous possible environmental disaster short of a nuclear bomb, and, just like everything else, we are being lied to about it.
Calculation to reveal one gallon equal to a pool .3 inches deep in a 31 inch in diameter container:
Given:
1 gallon of any fluid occupies 231 cubic inches of volume.
(See: http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/volumeunits.html)
Container is 31 inches in diameter, making the radius 15.5 inches.
Compute 'h', which represents the depth in inches of the pool equal to one gallon.
231 cubic inches = pi * 15.5 * 15.5 * h
231 cubic inches = 3.14 * 15.5 * 15.5 * h
231 cubic inches = 3.14 * 240.25 * h
231 cubic inches = 754.385 * h
231 / 754.385 = (754.385 * h) / 754.385
231 / 754.385 = h
.3062 inches = h
QED, a column of oil 31 inches in diameter and .3 inches in depth holds one gallon of oil. Thus, a colum of oil 31 inches in diameter and 1 inch in depth is equal to a bit over 3 gallons per inch.
The bastards, as usual, are lying.
Please check my math and correct my error(s). Thank you.