Based on the videos that BP released yesterday (apparently after resisting either acquiring them or releasing them for the last few weeks), The Guardian is reporting today that another method of analysis indicates that the flow rate- sit down, if you're not already- is around 70,000 barrels per day. 14 times the official estimate. That's a bit short of three million gallons per day, and the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill in less than four days. Every four days.
National Public Radio in the United States last night reported that the well is spewing up to 70,000 barrels of oil a day – the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez disaster every four days. Nearly 11 million gallons of oil were spilled in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989 when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground, oiling beaches and poisoning marine life for generations. NPR said scientific analysis of newly released video footage from the ocean floor suggested the gusher was 12 times more powerful than estimates offered so far by the Coast Guard or BP.I guess the most positive thing I can say is I really, really hope someone screwed up their unit conversions, giving a result four orders of magnitude too high. But I sort of doubt it.
Its analysis was conducted by Steve Werely, an associate professor at Purdue University, using a technique called particle image velocimetry, a method was accurate to 20%. That puts the range of the oil spill from 56,000 to 84,000 barrels a day.
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