Back Of The Envelope Oil Spill Calculations Options

[GroundPounder]

latest:

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/

"Today, a Purdue University mechanical engineering professor - Steven Wereley - testified to the House Committee on Commerce and Energy that 95,000 barrels a day are currently leaking into the Gulf. That's 3,990,000 gallons - just shy of 4 million gallons - per day."

worst case:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/busine...on/6985127.html

"In an exploration plan and environmental impact analysis filed with the federal government in February 2009, BP said it had the capability to handle a “worst-case scenario” at the Deepwater Horizon site, which the document described as a leak of 162,000 barrels per day from an uncontrolled blowout — 6.8 million gallons each day."

[lunk]

These volumes, that we are being given,
are exploding in size.

it's like someone was deciding,
should we underplay or overplay this,
and couldn't make up their mind.

This could be an extinction level event,
or something being blown way out of proportion,
to serve an agenda.

...i actually, sort of hope,
it's just something being blown way out of proportion.

[GroundPounder]

a 20" pipe is a big pipe. a visit to any site with a pipe flow calculator (for water anyways), can show a sizeable flow for even relatively slow velocities (~ 1ft/s). i can't gauge the speed from the video.

[Ricochet]

Revised estimates 95,000 barrels a day.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/19/9446...l#ixzz0oTxm2FEI

[lunk]

Revised estimates 95,000 barrels a day.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/19/9446...l#ixzz0oTxm2FEI

And they say the estimate could be out by 20 percent.
Down or up?

Definitely an underwater gusher,
a big one.