

Oil Spill Fix Idea - holdenc

Here's the idea...<p>http://www.4freeimagehost.com/uploads/6e00961aeac9.jpg<p>1) Create a large cone made of some hard substance.  It has a hole in the top, and get lowered over the leak.  It's wide enough and heavy so that it seals the bottom to the ocean floor.<p>2) Oil comes out the top until the bottom is sealed off.<p>3) Once the bottom is sealed a pipe is attached to the top and oil (and some water) is pumped to the surface.  This oil is contained at the surface.<p>4) Now that the oil is contained, the cone can be reinforced and made more permanent.
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_delirium
They tried something vaguely like this with the big dome they tried to lower
over it, didn't they? As I recall, a bunch of slushy hydrate ice started
forming on the inside, clogging up the pipe and making the dome buoyant.

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holdenc
Here's a pretty good video showing that:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIdufnmoeeY>

The dome was pretty small and made of metal. It seems like if the dome was
very large and heavy it would work.

My point in all of this is to argue that it's possible to contain the spill
using a brute force combination of the cap's size, weight and shape. And that
the reason that the spill has not yet been fixed in not due to it being un-
fixable, but likely other factors.

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st3fan
Yes .. <http://static.open.salon.com/files/coneheads1245765854.jpg>

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keltecp11
guarantee it's not that easy...

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holdenc
I am sure that my idea is gross oversimplification, but am also pretty sure
that some variation of this would work just fine. It seems to me just a matter
of making the cone larger or heavy enough.

Obviously it's not an easy problem to solve, but I guess I am wondering why.

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Element_
Have you ever tried to hold on to a small air filled rubber ball and swim to
the bottom of the deep end of a pool? Its impossible. Now think about how that
is magnified 1 mile below the ocean. A small amount of buoyant hydrates create
a lot of upward pressure.

