• Holmdel High School

• SATZ English

BP Deepwater Horizon: The Worst Oil Spill in US History

A Webquest and Virtual Lab

This will be counted as a lab. It is worth 43 points.

Webquest

http://ocean.si.edu/gulf-mexico-oil-spill-interactive

Anatomy of an Oil Spill: Science from the Gulf of Mexico

1. What happened on April 20, 2010?

The deepwater oil rig exploded.

The Disaster:

2. In words, describe the bird’s eye view of the spill on the following map, noting where

the Deepwater Horizon oil rig is located (click the plus sign for the pop up): the spill was

off the coast of alabama, mississippi, and new orleans.

3. Summarize in 3 sentences how oil is made. (click the plus sign for the pop up)

Oil starts off as decomposing animals and plants. While buried deep in the earth under

heat and pressure for millions of years their cells break down and hydrogen and carbon

atoms rearrange into the components of oil.

4. What caused the Deepwater explosion?

A bubble of methane gas escaped from the well and shot up the pipe towards the surface

causing an explosion and fire.

5. What size was the Deepwater Horizon spill?

5000 sq mi or around the size of connecticut

The Cleanup

6. What does the oil do to wildlife? Explain. (click the plus sign)

The oil killed animals like pelicans and sea turtles and dolphins. because when the

pelicans dove into the water to get fish the thick oil coated them and they ended up

spending time to clean themselves and not eating and they ended up dying. While sea

turtles and dolphins came up for air the passed the oil which was so thick it clogged

their nostrils they ended up suffocating.

7. Describe the 5 types of cleanup techniques used in an oil spill. (click the plus sign)

5 points

● Booms: Floating barriers are deployed to contain surface oil.

● Burning: they would set the oil on fire and it would burn but it is very dangerous to

human health because of all the smoke.

● Skimming: after the booms collect the oil skimmers suck it into the ship.

● Sorbent: Oil absorbing materials are made into a sponge and they will collect the oil

on beaches or the waters surface.

● Rakes: Any oil that washes ashore is raked from the sand.