Gulf Oil Slick Pushes Toward Coast: Big Pics
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April 27, 2010 -- With the smoke gone, the oil rig on the sea floor, and families left to mourn the loss of 11 workers who died in the Gulf of Mexico last week when the drilling platform Deep Horizon exploded, another problem is now rising from the depths: tens of thousands of gallons of oil a day.
On Sunday, emergency crews tried to staunch the flow of crude from a broken drill pipe using a remotely-operated submersible. They were unsuccessful, but were still working as of Monday.
Meanwhile, the oil slick is still growing. When NASA's Aqua satellite snapped the above shot on Sunday, the slick covered around 400 square miles of open ocean. As of yesterday, it had expanded to some 1,800 square miles, though much of that was diffused.
Below, a close-up shot of the southern tip of the slick shows several ships that appear to be trying to control its spread.
Over 1,000 people are working to contain the spill, but the task before them is daunting. The oil is spreading through an area of the gulf known to be a sperm whale habitat. Wetlands along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts could be devastated if the spill reaches shore.
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