

Subsea oil plumes found 142 miles from rig - edw519
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37572167/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/

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tcskeptic
I'm not trying to minimize the oil spill when I say this, but I have found
myself thinking about how wrong my perceptions of "natural" are of late. I was
recently in LA at the Tarpits. Seems so industrial and polluted -- yet totally
natural.

Similarly, in the gulf, while the gushing leak is clearly manmade, the "Stuff"
coming out(Other than the wicked dispersant, the "Mud", and the junk shot) is
entirely natural, unrefined, unprocessed. A part of the earth. It is just
contrary to my instincts to think about oil this way. It seems so chemical,
and processed. I wonder, other than "seeps" if there have been large,
catastrophic oil escapes via natural means (Earthquakes, etc.)? I wonder what
the largest was?

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jws
I think the problem isn't the substance, or its natural/synthetic origin. The
oceans can deal with oil. The issue is the abnormal concentration.

Perhaps an analog would be oxygen: mammals like you positively thrive on the
stuff, but do look up "oxygen toxicity" if you accidentally increase its
partial pressure to a few times ambient.

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jonah
You're right about concentration/volume. The marine ecosystem deals with a
certain amount of hydrocarbons. It's when there's more than it can deal with
that we get problems.

Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara are studying some
of the most readily accessible natural seeps in the world right off of campus:

<http://convergence.ucsb.edu/article/goo-and-gas>

<http://seeps.geol.ucsb.edu/>

[http://convergence.ucsb.edu/news/ucsb-scientists-document-
fa...](http://convergence.ucsb.edu/news/ucsb-scientists-document-fate-huge-
oil-slicks-seeps-coal-oil-point)

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leviathant
BP disaster is really terrible, plus: Oceans have currents, Film at 11.

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leviathant
Really, a downvote? I flagged the article because I come here to Hacker News
to read about stuff that otherwise doesn't make it through the filters on all
the other meta news sites I visit. I am very, very much aware of what's going
on in the gulf, but I'm just not seeing how this article fits in with the
topic here.

Never mind the topic of this particular story isn't even especially new -
they've been talking about these plumes for weeks, this is just a rehash of
"Scientists tracking undersea oil plumes, BP in denial, continues to mislead."

I suppose if I had articulated that instead of snarking, I wouldn't have the
downvote, but if this story were on topic...

~~~
getonit
I've been noticing a lot of this recently.

