Spill

The Gulf of Mexico is still recovering from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  During the spring and summer of 2010, almost 5 million barrels of oil escaped before the leak was capped, although the real amount will probably never be known.  It was clearly the worst oil spill in the Gulf, but it was hardly the first.  They're all too frequent in the region, often hurricane-related, but the next biggest was the Ixtoc 1 spill that took place on June 3, 1979.

Spewing 3 million barrels into the Gulf it wouldn't be contained until the following March.  It was in much shallower water (170 feet as opposed to the 5000 foot depth in the BP spill), but it still took nine months to cap.  The spill started in the same way as BP, with an explosion, and the same efforts were made to stop it by injecting mud and debris into the hole.  Chemical dispersants were also used.  Prevailing currents directed the slick toward Texas, so officials had some time to prepare.  Cleanup was also helped by bad weather.  Hurricane Frederic punished New Orleans, but pushed tons of oil away from the beaches in Texas.  (Fun fact:  1979 was also the year hurricanes began being named for men.)

While it's beyond discouraging that so little was learned from this spill, there is perhaps hope for the areas affected by the Deepwater spill based on how fully the Gulf seems to have come back from Ixtoc, including the survival of zooplankton and coral that in some cases has grown around and over the oil.  Time will tell...