3 ms·
Seems like the "massive oil spill" from the link is equivalent to half a year of natural seepage from this single seep field.
by xyzzyz 5y ago
Seems like the "massive oil spill" from the link is equivalent to half a year of natural seepage from this single seep field.
- throwawayboise 5y agoYeah 120,000 gallons is a proverbial drop in the context of the Pacific ocean. Too bad it was close enough to shore to cause this local environmental problem though.
- cptskippy 5y agoI have no idea how a surface spill compares deep water seeps but the seeps have been happening for hundreds of thousands of years. Not sure where I am going with this but I just thought it was interesting.
- dmckeon 5y agoMore like a month, at 42 gallons per barrel.
- jaycroft 5y agoIt would also be very interesting to see seepage from say, 1910, predating the 10,000 wells that were built in the area, 1925, at the height of the oil boom, and today, but I doubt this information exists. Edited to say "area" instead of "city" - there was no city at that time.
- tkgally 5y agoHistories of California contain many descriptions of extensive oil seepage both on shore and off. Here’s an example from further up the coast, from a book published in 1883: “The flowing springs of petroleum early attracted the attention of the settlers. The oil was flowing from the earth in hundreds of places, sometimes forming large pools into which cattle, sheep, and horses, as well as wild animals, would venture and get caught, leaving their bones as a warning of danger for future visitors. Sometimes it flowed into the streams and would float away for miles before it evaporated. There were hundreds of acres, perhaps thousands, covered with the residuum left after the evaporation of the lighter parts. Springs of it also occur in the Santa Barbara Channel, and the first navigators had fears of the near vicinity of a hot place, from the villainous smell that pervaded the atmosphere where the oil was floating on the ocean.” History of Santa Barbara County, California, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers https://archive.org/details/historyofsantaba00maso/page/n189/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/historyofsantaba00maso/page/n189...
- fuzzfactor 5y agoIf the seeps were from the same geologic formations that the wells were drilled into, it would be expected that the oilwells would have reduced the availability of the oil to continue seeping at the previous volume.