Sunday, May 9, 2010

I Love the Smell of Napalm in the Mid-Afternoon

A dark day in my little hamlet... (Corvallis to Albany is about 9 miles straight-line distance, as measured in Google Earth.)
...most of the rest of the Willamette Valley, and fair-sized chunks of the Coast Range and Cascades as well. (Eugene to Salem is about 62 miles, or 100 km)
The above images are from a Google Earth-based online app that allows you to overlay the size and shape of the Gulf Coast oil spill on whatever area you want to wish the disaster on. Or more reasonably, to get a better sense of scale in the context of an area that's more familiar to you. All in all, it looks as if maximum N-S extent is about 100 miles, and E-W about 150 miles. Of course, the spill is irregular, so its total area is less than those two numbers would imply- about 2500 square miles. On the other hand, if I'm reading the linked site and the resources it's based on correctly, the data above are based on Thursday's observations. So I'm sure it's significantly larger by now.

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