News Releases
Natural Petroleum Seeps Release Equivalent of 8-80 Exxon Valdez Oil Spills
A new study by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is the first to quantify the amount of oil residue in […]
Read MoreStudy Identifies Deepwater Horizon Debris as Likely Source of Gulf of Mexico Oil Sheens
A chemical analysis of oil sheens found floating recently at the ocean’s surface near the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster indicates that the source is pockets of oil trapped […]
Read MoreStudy Reveals Microbes Dine on Thousands of Compounds in Oil
Thousands of feet below the bottom of the sea, off the shores of Santa Barbara, CA, single-celled organisms are busy feasting on oil.
Until now, nobody knew how many oily compounds […]
Read MoreNatural Petroleum Seeps Offer Clues to the Past and the Future
Just a half mile off California’s coast near Santa Barbara, and in coastal areas around the world, natural petroleum seeps are releasing an astonishing amount of methane gas and oil […]
Read MoreA Natural Petroleum Spring
Bubbles stream from vents surrounding misshapen cones formed by thick liquid oozing from the sea floor. It may sound like a hydrothermal vent field near a mid-ocean ridge, but these […]
Read MoreWHOI Scientists Map and Confirm Origin of Large, Underwater Hydrocarbon Plume in Gulf
Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) detected and characterized a plume of hydrocarbons that is at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a residue of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The work presents a forensic snapshot of the plume characteristics in June and is reported in a study appearing in the Aug. 19 issue of the journal Science.
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