Friday, June 4, 2010

How The Gulf Could Turn Into A Fireball


There is
zero room for errors in solving the Gulf Oil Catastrophe. By the end of the grim post, you'll understand how the Gulf could turn into a fireball.

A few hours ago I finally wept, because this really is a "Disaster of Biblical Proportions", as one black blogger aptly defined it two weeks ago.


Right Click To See Slide Show


In mid-May, I stumbled on this article, "The Cover Up: BP's Crude Politics & The Looming Environmental Mega-Disaster", written by investigative journalist Wayne Madison.

I have mixed feelings about Madison as a person, and am cautious about assigning credibility to everything he writes, but he has a decent enough track record to consider. He wrote:

"They [his sources at FEMA and Army Corps of Engineers] add that if the ocean oil geyser is not stopped within 90 days, there will be irreversible damage to the marine eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico, north Atlantic Ocean, and beyond."

True. I figured that out on my own, which I wrote about on May 19th. Here's my quick summary.

Oceans have highways and freeways to transport water around the world in what's called the Thermohaline Circulation.




Think of the Gulf Loop as a highway that leads to a freeway called the Ocean Conveyor Belt. This "belt" moves warm and cold waters around in a way that stabilizes temperature and climate. When the "saltiness" or salinity of the ocean waters become disrupted, the great conveyor belt is affected.

As I see it, the density of the oil and the ph balance of the toxic oil dispersants can't help but affect this.


This oil dispersant is banned in the UK due to it's toxicity.
The EPA and Obama told BP stop using it,
but they treated it like a suggestion.


Madison also reported:

"At best, some Corps of Engineers experts say it could take two years to cement the chasm on the floor of the Gulf."

Two long, oily years. Imagine the damage after the oil and BP's toxic oil dispersants hit the ocean major artery. We think of the demise death of seabirds, fish, and dolphins, but there hasn't much talk yet about phytoplankton, which makes much of the oxygen for the earth, or algae, krill, and plankton which are at the bottom of the food chain.

This brings me to the #1 thing that caught my eye. Madison wrote:

"There is other satellite imagery being withheld by the Obama Administration that shows what lies under the gaping chasm spewing oil at an ever-alarming rate is a cavern estimated to be around the size of Mount Everest. This information has been given an almost national security-level classification to keep it from the public."

This ties into what nola.com, the kick azz news paper for New Orleans, LA said. To date, this May 10th article of theirs is one I have returned to repeatedly, and urge you to read in it's entirety.

"Deposits of oil are not in underground caverns; they ooze in the pores of a sponge-like layer of rock, along with natural gas in both gaseous and the crystallized hydrate forms.

"But the hydrates also exist throughout the drilled rock formations, and like the oil below, they exert upward pressure when a drilling operation opens a path to the surface."


********************

I awakened from a dream early Sunday morning that nearly all of the Gulf of Mexico was on fire. The image in my mind was a map of that region. Hopefully it won't come true, but immediately, I had an idea of how this could occur.

If there is an underwater cavern beneath the ocean floor and site of the oil leak like Madison said, and it contains a substantial amount of methane gas, combined with the oil on top, at some point there could be a spontaneous methane explosion, or a man-made one which I'll discuss in a moment.

This plausibly could kill tens of millions of people in states and countries around the Gulf of Mexico based on a theory grounded in reality. It occurred on a much smaller scale in 1986 in Lake Nyos, in Cameroon. The methane gas explosion created a ground level carbon dioxide cloud that killed many nearby villagers. See it at about 2:20 on the video below.

It's also theorized this happened on a larger scale during the Permian Period, which wiped out 95% of life and the dinosaurs. A meteor may have struck an ocean, or an earthquake in the ocean unsettled the ocean floor, igniting the methane gases below. That too, is illustrated in the beginning of this History Channel video:






This information ties in with the idea of nuking the oil well leak. It would be the biggest gamble ever taken in the known history of mankind.

Keith Olberman discussed this idea that's floating around in some circles. His guest on 6/03/2010, Dr. Michio Kaku, a physicist professor and author, made a lot of damn sense (along with having the ability to entertain) in discussing the consequences. See him at 2:00 minutes in the video. This was guy was great. What he said about hurricane season and radioactive tarballs on your roof was both sobering and funny. I wonder if BP and those involved will listen to the voice of sanity:





While this technique worked in Russia under certain circumstances, the location of our catastrophe, the amount of the oil spilled, and the presence of gas below the sea surface will ensure the end of a chapter in American life, and perhaps life itself, if nuking the site of the leak triggers a methane gas explosion.

Plausibly, a methane gas explosion in the Gulf could happen in the absence of the nuclear solution. I wonder if one more oil well fire OR lightning hits during a hurricane may be all that's needed to bring new meaning to the word, FUBAR.





Damn but I'd like the see a bunch of people involved in the negligence of this disaster - and the politicians who continue to enable them - confined to an oil-soaked island in the Gulf as a life sentence.

Otherwise, I dream and pray for a miracle... one like the parting of the waters... this time so the folly of the profiteers can be corrected, and the rest of humanity and the planet given a second chance.

If ignored, then what's done, is done, and we just might become the new dinosaurs.


17 comments:

  1. Goodness KIT, I can tolerate FEMA camp stories, poison in vaccines, depopulation, but this stuff about the consequences of this oil gusher is straight up scary.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That BP and others of their ilk didn't take the necessary precautions after the Exxon Valdez disaster (and subsequent oil spills)is unconscionable. This is a freakin' nightmare for EVERYONE, and I'm afraid life won't ever be the same. This can easily happen again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. May that dream not come true.
    I'd seen the story of the carbon monoxide deaths on A&E or History the other day. Dear God in heaven Kit what have we done.
    You should cross-post this at Mikes.If you are busy I'd be happy to put a short post up and link to it if you'd like.
    You do great research, this is extraordinary but leaves me feeling helpless and ineffectual.Not that I can do anything about financial and healthcare reform either, but such a massive disaster on a global scale, something which can't be fixed incrementally-leaves me feeling like the life is sucked out of me. What have we done.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oso, It was such a downer when I realized how bad "bad" might get that dragged my feet writing this.

    I'll give Mike a call now. Generally he doesn't go for word-for-word crossposts but we'll see. Otherwise thanks.

    Penny Wize, Yeah, they look out strictly for themselves, to the point where they appear to have the conscious of a sociopath, which is to say, none.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is important Kit. I would love to see it at MMA, word for word. Let me know later if you have trouble embedding the vids. You will have to find Olbermann's on YouTube so you can copy the URL.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mike, Done. Cross posted under the title, "How The Oil Spill Could Turn Into A Fireball".

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is exactly why the oil spill has made me cry. It's over for us all if something is not done post haste, and people are too blind and/or ignorant to get that. Then again, what can the common wo/man do but sit helplessly by and watch?

    This is exactly why I have always felt that people who know nothing about science - geography specifically - do not belong in positions of power as they can quite literally ruin the world and kill us all. A basic geography class years ago taught me that much.

    Now all we can do is pray.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Looks like BP really shit the bed this time!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great post Kit.
    This is absolutely devastating. I saw my first pictures of the birds doused in oil the other day and it was sickening; I became physically repulsed and wanted to just go down there, dive in and save them. I really, really hope that this situation is better sooner than later, but I'm sure that it won't be based on the amount of damage already caused. It's a disaster and people don't even really realize.
    The stuff you posted - true and true - turns that sadness into terror.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It was reported that the BP President Tony Hayward said that he "wanted his life back"
    http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/04/hayward-weekend-holidays/
    This man is truly a piece of work--words can't express. Either he's clueless, or arrogantly thinks he's outside of the realm of this diaster, and he has kids!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anna, Tony Hayward thinks he just "got his life back" by replacing himself with a blonde haired American spokesman to deal with the issue. This was a very shrewd choice: an attempt to make British Petroleum not appear so British, and to have a rep whom whites in America can identify with and be a little less inclined to be angry with. He's out of his got damned mind. The ocean currents will transport this oil straight to Britain, and I'm guessing by or before Christmas. I think the Brits will be livid, and hope they roast his azz.

    Livication, You said, "The stuff you posted... turns that sadness into terror." Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

    Reggie, ... and the world will have to sleep in it.

    Tbyrd, Me too. I cried several times last week, and my heart still cries silently. I wish our tears could heal the ocean...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Kit.
    It's a fright... to wake up like that pushing you to find the answers, though, that gives you some idea of why dreams are so vital. I dreampt I was in jail covered in black oil. I wrote a rant. You have been logically eloquent! LOL Great piece!

    ReplyDelete
  13. How credible is the first guy you highlighted in the post, Kit?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Rippa, Good question. Wayne Madsen is an investigative journalist with mixed reviews, and you can scan his work
    here and decide for yourself.

    The NOLA.com article I cited right after Madsen's speaks about the methane gas being present.

    Also, on May 8th, the Huffington Post and other places said:

    "The deadly blowout of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP's internal investigation."

    This is verified in a June 2, 2010 article by NationalScienceFoundation.gov:

    "The release of oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident on April 20, 2010, is of greater magnitude and scope than any previous spill. It's also unique as it has introduced both oil and methane gas into the deep, cold waters of the Gulf of Mexico."

    Note in the article they're doing a study to determine the effects of the Gulf spill on the "microbial population". Who are they trying to fool?

    So I got to thinking about all this after the dream I had last weekend. Then came the talk about nuking the oil well to seal it.

    I remembered what Madsen and Nola.com had said about the geology. Well, methane gas and oil and fire from a nuke didn't seem like a good idea.

    I googled methane gas explosions and found the YouTube video now in this post, and that blew my mind. We don't know 100% for sure how the dinosaurs became extinct, but scientists do know about the 1986 Lake Nyos methane gas explosion and we now we do too.

    Then I thought about the hurricanes - and then, lightning.

    No one has said jack about that in the media yet, but I thought of oil, gas, and fire, not from a nuke, but from lightning bolts in a bad storm. I'm no expert, but it sounds like a deadly combination. Pray that I'm wrong, or at least for God's mercy on us all.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Gwen, Gee-zus! That's a friggin' nightmare! I hope you don't real close to the affected areas. *hug*

    ReplyDelete
  16. Kinda' makes SeeNew's Malthusian cull theories sound plausible.

    ReplyDelete
  17. John, I'm not inclined to tie the Oil Spill with CNu's Illuminati conspiracy theories. I see it so far as an accident resulting from deregulation and negligence.

    However, the toxicity from this catastrophe, i.e., the oil and the dispersants, might have the effect that Malthusians want: reduced population. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska left one pod of whales infertile; they have not reproduced since that accident.

    ReplyDelete

Hi, this is Kit.

I haven't posted since summer 2010, and comment moderation has been on for a very long time.

My old blogger friends (you know who you are) are welcome to email me.

I can be reached at:
kitsmailbag@gmail.com.