Crisis! in The Gulf of Mexico

Lately, there has been much chatter about the deepwater horizon oil spill. In the area around where I live, fishing has been suspended, many people are out of jobs, and the oil company BP (British Petroleum) has been the perverbial “butt” of everyone’s jokes.  the following is a brief, historical timeline of the oil spill, and it’s effects.

April 20, 2010- Transocean’s $560 million oil rig explodes. 11 killed, fire engulfs the whole rig, the column of smoke is visible from about five miles away.

April 22, 2010- The rig sinks, through approximately 5 thousand feet of water, hitting, and breaking a crack in the pipeline of an oil well.  There was concern for drilling the well, for it had to be drilled 13,000 feet under the surface, and there was great danger, if they had hit the methane bubble that had formed under the surface, it would have caused a tsunami so massive that it would have anihalated most of the inhabitants of the Gulf COast.

April 29 2010- Obama pledges that every available resource will be used in containing this oil spill.

May 5, 2010- the containment barge begins it’s trip towards the oil spill, efforts to cap the valve (2) have failed.

May 6 & 7, 2010- oil washes ashore Louisiana’s Chandeluer Islands, the 92 ton containment dome fails because of frozen, crystals that clogged the exit hole. fishing ban in the gulf coast is lengthened untill may 17th

May 16, 2010- BP succeeds in inserting a tube into the well to prevent some of the oil from leaking.

May 19, 2010- The first heavy oil from the spill washes ashore in fragile Louisiana marshlands and part of the mass of oil enters a powerful current that could carry it to Florida and beyond.

May 31, 2010- BP announces that the leak may not be fixed until August.

June 2, 2010- BP uses robot submarines to cut what is left of the riser pipe, which is leaking. Then they want to cover it with a containment cap.

June 4, 2010- The containment cap is said to be collecting about 19,000 gallons of crude oil per day.

June 10, 2010- Britain’s prime minister, Divid Cameron, say that Britain is ready to help BP with the oil spill.

June 16, 2010- BP sets up a $20 million dollar fund for damage claims across the gulf coast, good news for local fishermen.

June 27, 2010- oil finally washed ashore Mississippi’s mainland, although it’s barrier  islands had taken a beating.

June 30, 2010- Rough water, caused by the first hurricane of the season, Hurricane Alex, disrupts beach cleanup efforts.

July 5, 2010- BP says that the cost of the spill had reached $3.12 billion.

July 7, 2010- tar balls wash up on shores of Texas, the oil spill has now touched every Gulf state in America.

July 15, 2010- BP says it has stopped the leak, with a new, tight sealing cap.

Thank you for reading this. I am fourteen, so please do not leave bad comments, this is my first article.

JB