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Oil in the Ocean

June 27, 2015

Each year, thousands of barrels of oil seep out of the ocean floor. On a 2009 cruise aboard the R/V Atlantis, WHOI chemist Christopher Reddy (right) and David Valentine of UC Santa Barbara looked at natural oil and methane seeps about one mile off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., using the human-occupied submersible Alvin and the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry.They sampled asphalt deposits (pictured) in the hopes of learning more about how seeped oil changes once released into the environment. Their data and observations are finding renewed interest among those tracking the spread of the recent oil spill in Santa Barbara.(Photo by Karin Lemkau, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)