Oil, Oil, Toil and Trouble...

[cl15876]

I should have figured that the Tar Balls are traveling. ;)

Only Hanstravel... [/quote]



Just about spit wine all over my laptop....[/quote]

I did too! Y'all are soo creative! I really hope they get this mess cleaned up soon so it doesn't get to the Atlantic side!!!!

[CameronBornAndBred]

Better hope that spill doesn't hit the Gulf Loop Current (and gets carried up the Atlantic Coast):
http://www.examiner.com/x-30794-Chicago ... ey-West-FL
Tar balls have hit Key West; hopefully the spill won't wash up on the Atlantic side.

Turns out the tar balls aren't from the big oil spill. Is Roy vacationing down there? Did he go swimming?
http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/94247569.html

[windsor]

Turns out the tar balls aren't from the big oil spill. Is Roy vacationing down there? Did he go swimming?
http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/94247569.html

Those are the balls the tarholes lost last year while in Charleston...they've been adrift ever since...

[CameronBornAndBred]

Turns out the tar balls aren't from the big oil spill. Is Roy vacationing down there? Did he go swimming?
http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/94247569.html

Those are the balls the tarholes lost last year while in Charleston...they've been adrift ever since...

[devildeac]

Turns out the tar balls aren't from the big oil spill. Is Roy vacationing down there? Did he go swimming?
http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/94247569.html

Those are the balls the tarholes lost last year while in Charleston...they've been adrift ever since...

Oh, my...

[captmojo]

Is now the time I should sell off my BP stock? It's been good in the past.
Exxon's value and yields came back after the Valdez mess. Now that they figure this last failure to stop the leak is going to change strategy, I don't know how long it'll take to recover all the costs.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

I think the ways this oil spill will impact our lives will not be so much in the price of gasoline as it will be in the price and availability of seafood of all sorts and where the seafood comes from in order to satisfy the market demands.

The Gulf region is also very important as a place to vacation and enjoy the wildlife and natural habitats. The impact on the marshes, wetlands and coastlines is just beginning to unfold.

The number of people whose livelihoods are lost or seriously impaired long-term is an unknown as is the impact of the sort of unemployment likely to follow this disaster.

With the weakening of the local ecosystems will come a greater vulnerability to the effects of tropical storms and hurricanes. How potentially great losses in the region could effect the rest of the country becomes an unknown along with the impact on the insurance industry and how it conducts business.

[TillyGalore]

I need a physics lesson, at least I think it's physics.

Why is the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, you know, the one spouting 10,000 barrels a day, gushing out oil instead of trickling out? Is it related to pressure?

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I need a physics lesson, at least I think it's physics.

Why is the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, you know, the one spouting 10,000 barrels a day, gushing out oil instead of trickling out? Is it related to pressure?

Yes, it spews due to the pressure, which is many thousands of PSI (pounds per square inch), or so I heard weeks ago. It's a very big, new well, so it has maximum pressure, which is why it was drilled to begin with - great (potential) economic return. As the oil is depleted, the pressure drops and oil producers have to resort to pressurizing the well (with steam or water, usually) to get the last bits of oil out of it, but wells can last for years. When it costs more to get the oil out than the revenue that it produces, wells are shut down and abandoned.

[DukeUsul]

I need a physics lesson, at least I think it's physics.

Why is the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, you know, the one spouting 10,000 barrels a day, gushing out oil instead of trickling out? Is it related to pressure?

Yes, it spews due to the pressure, which is many thousands of PSI (pounds per square inch), or so I heard weeks ago. It's a very big, new well, so it has maximum pressure, which is why it was drilled to begin with - great (potential) economic return. As the oil is depleted, the pressure drops and oil producers have to resort to pressurizing the well (with steam or water, usually) to get the last bits of oil out of it, but wells can last for years. When it costs more to get the oil out than the revenue that it produces, wells are shut down and abandoned.

What Ozzie said.

This is why a relief well will help solve the issue. If they drill one or two relief wells on the same oil field, then start extracting oil from those wells in a controlled manner, it will reduce the pressure at the leaking well, reducing the flow.

[TillyGalore]

Thanks for the explanation, fellas, I really appreciate it.

Follow-up question. Had a well not been drilled, would the pressure inside the oil field built up to a point that the ground around it would explode, thus releasing all that oil?

[TillyGalore]

I hated science when I was in school, and am pretty sure I forgot a lot of chemistry and physics as soon as I finished those classes.

[DukeUsul]

Probably not. They have to drill through soooooo much rock to get to the oil. That's why it is taking months to get the relief wells drilled (they started a while ago). I think there's just too much rock there that it would be unlikely the pressure of the oil would cause an eruption.

[TillyGalore]

Probably not. They have to drill through soooooo much rock to get to the oil. That's why it is taking months to get the relief wells drilled (they started a while ago). I think there's just too much rock there that it would be unlikely the pressure of the oil would cause an eruption.

Got it. Thanks!!

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

I need a physics lesson, at least I think it's physics.

Why is the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, you know, the one spouting 10,000 barrels a day, gushing out oil instead of trickling out? Is it related to pressure?

As an illustration of the sort of pressure associated with an oil well, think about scenes you may have encountered in movies.... someone "discovers oil" and a "gusher" spews oil into the air. One of the most famous such move scenes was in the film "Giant."

[TillyGalore]

I need a physics lesson, at least I think it's physics.

Why is the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, you know, the one spouting 10,000 barrels a day, gushing out oil instead of trickling out? Is it related to pressure?

As an illustration of the sort of pressure associated with an oil well, think about scenes you may have encountered in movies.... someone "discovers oil" and a "gusher" spews oil into the air. One of the most famous such move scenes was in the film "Giant."

I think what has me confused is the pressure of the water over the oil field versus an oil well drilled on land. IIRC, if the pressure of the water is greater that would contain things, but if the pressure of the oil is greater then we have the current situation.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I think what has me confused is the pressure of the water over the oil field versus an oil well drilled on land. IIRC, if the pressure of the water is greater that would contain things, but if the pressure of the oil is greater then we have the current situation.

Yes, the pressure of the water is quite considerable - it is ~5,000 feet of head. {redacting, redacting, redacting many comments here... )

[TillyGalore]

I think what has me confused is the pressure of the water over the oil field versus an oil well drilled on land. IIRC, if the pressure of the water is greater that would contain things, but if the pressure of the oil is greater then we have the current situation.

Yes, the pressure of the water is quite considerable - it is ~5,000 feet of head. {redacting, redacting, redacting many comments here... )

Is the water pressure keeping this disaster from being worse than it is?

[DukeUsul]

I think what has me confused is the pressure of the water over the oil field versus an oil well drilled on land. IIRC, if the pressure of the water is greater that would contain things, but if the pressure of the oil is greater then we have the current situation.

Yes, the pressure of the water is quite considerable - it is ~5,000 feet of head. {redacting, redacting, redacting many comments here... )

Is the water pressure keeping this disaster from being worse than it is?

The reason oil rises is due to the fact that it has lower density than water. I would think that as long as the oil has a way of getting around (above) the water, the oil will rise regardless of the water pressure.

I expect that the "underwater plumes" of oil that many people are worried about are different types of oils or oil solids that have higher density that is closer to that of water.

Physics aside: One of the easiest ways to think of physics is in terms of energy, not in terms of force (or pressure). Lagrange and Hamilton developed methods of analysis of mechanics that are much more insightful and in my opinion easier to do than classical Newtonian mechanics (F=ma and all that). To calculate what happens to a blob of oil on the bottom of the ocean, Newton would have you calculate all the forces acting on that blob and then use F=ma to find out what happens to it as time goes forward. Hamiltonian physics would have you calculate the energy of the system (potential and kinetic) and see how the energy state evolves with time. I think of ocean water sitting on top of oil as a state with higher potential energy (because the denser object is higher than the less dense object). Systems will tend toward lower potential energy states as long as there isn't a potential energy barrier (like an activation energy in chemistry). Because we're talking fluids that can flow around each other, there's no potential energy barrier preventing the water from displacing the oil below it, converting potential to kinetic energy.

[TillyGalore]

Okay, I think I understand. Being a visual person, I like to see how things are done. Is there anyway I can recreate what is happening in the Gulf using common household items? Perhaps a balloon full of cooking oil in a bowl of water, then prick the balloon to watch the oil trickle/gush out.