Discover how the bursting of underwater oil drops during spill cleanups can lead to persistent pollution in the water, challenging our understanding of the true impact of these disasters.
The Curious Case of Oil Drips
It is a common view that in case of an oil spill underwater, the oil will merely flow to the top and grow into a patch that can easily be removed. But new research out of the University of Illinois Chicago paints a more complicated and concerning picture.
Published in Physical Review Letters, the research shows that when oil drops fall on the water they do not promptly become a level film. In solution, the portion of the drop below it then behaves like a soft solid and shears, creating daughter droplets (pictured as number 2) instead. This can be repeated, forming endless small oil droplets dispersed in the water column and no away from a perception of clean-up.
Debunking Oil Spill Clean-ups
The finding has important implications. And that suggests that current oil spill cleanups, which often aim to remove the oil slick on the surface of the water, maybe missing entire plumes of oil still suspended underneath. Because they are these smaller droplets, forever, or near forever remains a risk to the ecological marine system as cleaning becomes harder.
The study’s senior author, Sushant Anand, an associate professor of civil and materials engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago – -claimed: “Oil spill cleanups have focused on the slick that forms on top of the ocean but our discovery sheds light on a previously unknown pathway by which oil can spread pollution in sub-surface waters.” This implies that the actual environmental price tag for oil spills to society as well as to ecosystems might be much higher than estimated, and a large part of it goes unseen.
Conclusion
This discovery, the finding that underwater oil drops burst during spills can provide a real challenge to determine how well these disasters and our responses really work. This study demonstrates that efforts for swift removal of oil from the water column, to prevent spill onto animals and shorelines or incorporation into deep sediments, cannot substantially mitigate the formation of vast numbers of small oil droplets in Coastal Gulf waters, reinforcing the need for new styles and approaches for improved cleanup to target this hidden pollution. While the world still struggles with the consequence of oil spills, this study is a reminder that we need to re-think our strategies and should come up with a more holistic way in safeguarding our marine environment.
