Gulf of Mexico Oil: Visualizations of Sea Floor Situation – Update 3
May 3, 2010 · 24 Comments
Like many others, I am trying to keep up with the Gulf of Mexico situation, particularly efforts to stop to flow of oil from the damaged 5,000 foot long riser line. I have found it difficult to get a realistic picture of the situation on the seabed floor, 5,000′ below the Gulf surface.
I will be posting what I find here.
######### Update3 5/16/10 @ 9:15 AM ESY
BP continues to try to capture oil release from the sunken riser. Here’s a BP graphic showing their Riser Insertion Tube approach.
NOLA.com has a PDF file at this link.
########## Update 2 5/11/10 @ 11:00 PM EST
BP’s dome approach did not work because build-up of methane crystals in the top opening of the dome. BP is going to try a smaller containment device, called a “top hat” which is smaller, hopefully reducing the potential for hydrate crystal formation. BP plans to inject methanol and heated water to keep crystal formation under control.
########### Update 1 5/4/10 @ 9:30 AM EST ############
Here’s a YouTube Video that does a pretty good job depicting the below water situation.
############ Original Post #########################
Visualizing The Sea Floor Situation Below the Deepwater Horizon Rig
The remains of the Deepwater Horizon rig lay on the sea floor, 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf. It is difficult to visualize the situation because there are no overall photographs of the scene. This makes understanding the situation even harder for those of us not familiar with the details of deepwater oil exploration. We see new terms like riser pipe, drill pipe, blowout preventer, relief well, dome containment and we wonder what they are and how things will work.
Many people are developing sketches to help explain the situation. In an effort to consolidate these visualizations in a single location, I will be linking to these images and giving my understanding of them.
Map View of Sea Floor
This image, located on US Coast Guard District 8 flicker page (link), shows the location of the Deepwater Horizon, the riser (blue and red line) and the Blowout Preventer (BOP). The sonar scan show the rig on its side, it appears to be well away from the BOP. The riser line has a length of approximately 5,000 feet. Based on this schematic, the riser appears to have twisted and turned as the rig sank to the sea floor.
Where Is the Leaking Oil Coming From
The Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV) have on-board lights and cameras to enable the ROV operators to see and record underwater. This next image, located on US Coast Guard District 8 flicker page (link) is a 4/24/10 incident schematic the shows 2 photos of the oil leak cross-referenced to a conceptual diagram showing the BOP and twisted riser with the approximate locations of 2 oil leaks. This image is
Figure 2: Schematic of Riser Leaks
A 3rd leak was discovered and a Simplified Riser Diagram showing the 3 leak locations was posted on the US Coast Guard District 8 flickr page (link) on 4/29/10.
Figure 3: 3rd Leak on Riser
The Times Picayune (link) has an on-going page dedicated to the Horizon Explorer incident. they have an effective visualization that depicts the rise on the sea bed floor with 3 leaks as well as the planned relief well line that is intended to intercept the original oil well and cap it to stop oil flow to the damaged riser.
Figure 4: NOLA.Com Visualization - Beneath the SOil Slick
BBC Visualization – Tackling the Leak Underwater
The BBC Gulf incident web page has a helpful visualization of the medium and long-term leak solutions. In the medium term, the plan is to cover the leaking riser section with a steel and concrete doom with a suction line so the water-oil mix can be pumped to barges on the surface for proper handling.
Figure 5: BBC Visualizations of methods for tackling teh leak underwater
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