Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Map the Desolation

From The NYTimes today:


About the Oil Slick Areas Shown on the Map

The “probable extent” of the oil slick is an estimate by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of where oil is mostly likely to go based on wind and ocean current forecasts, as well as analysis of aerial photography and satellite imagery. The “observed extent” show areas where oil was visible on the surface of the water during aerial surveys of the Gulf. The observed extents are not available every day. The extents may vary widely from day to day because of changes in wind patterns and ocean currents.

2 comments:

mobile phone said...

I am very happy to read your articles, more useful for me especially
I have the same thing with you. I am so very petrified of this in my lectures.

Flying Junior said...

I'm fairly certain piecing together newspaper articles and referencing the initial Coast Guard reports that it's as bad as you could possibly fucking imagine it times about 360,000. Imagine a mega-high-pressure oversized firehose spewing as much oil as one person could stand to look at about every two seconds. Then imagine the quantity of oil needed to continue this rate of flow for several months to come. It's worse than anyone could really conceptualize. It's a battle for survival.