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Ugh, last night just as i was going to bed, i had some awful confluence of symptoms. Christine cared for me and played a chapter of the Wind in the Willows audio book and coaxed me to sleep, and then took care of the tea and some pills for me this morning. ( Details for my record ) All in all, the confluence of symptoms seems downright peculiar. I don't wanna think and work today. I don't know that i could sleep in....
Here's a bibliography (webliography?) for the Deepwater Horizon spill that links to the NOAA and EPA relevant information http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/govdocs/gd/oilspill2010.html . Of the links provided there, this seems most relevant.
I'd read some ... gossip... about the Macondo Prospect as being a field where the oil was mixed with very high pressure gas, under a fragile salt cover. My guess is that most of this information is top corporate secret, but i went searching for generally available information. The best article i could find that helped match up with the gossip, is Davy Jones Discovery Opening New Shelf Frontier In Ultradeep Geology Below Salt (April 2010). [SubSeaIQ on Davey Jones].
From this morning's reading, my simplified geologic understanding is thus: through geologic history, there's been drainage from the North American content south into the Gulf basin, creating sedimentary fans with bio matter. Ocean level changes fluctuate, and huge salt deposits like the Louann Salt shelf formed over the sedimentary fans. More fans form on top of the salt. These sedimentary sands become host to oil and gas as the biomatter decomposes. Underneath the salt, the pressures & temperatures are ridiculously high (440 degrees Fahrenheit, ±27,000 psi), because the salt is a barrier for leakage, while the sands above the salt aren't at such pressures.
The fans and salt features extend from what is now onshore areas to the deepwater and ultradeepwater off shore. On land, there has been exploration under the salt domes (the high pressure of the oil and gas deform the salt shield upward, creating a sign that there's a good reserve). In water, not so much. Thus, the Davey Jones shallow water (20 ft) well, drilled from top of the salt at 19,958 feet to 28,530 feet to more sands, is news worthy in April 2010.
The Macondo prospect is described as Mississippi Canyon Block 252 in the Gulf of Mexico, water depth of 4,993 feet to 5,023 ft (SubSeaIQ gives both depths; "ultradeep" is >5000ft of water). The Deepwater Horizon had just finished drilling to 18,000 ft.
I can't tell from the unclear figures in the article -- probably were fine in the print version -- whether it's likely that the Macondo well was deep enough to be through the salt barrier as the gossip alleged. The gossip also talked about the salt domes collapsing, a doomsday vision of the salt cap falling apart and releasing all the high pressure oil into the gulf. Now that i realize that there'd be THREE MILES of other material for the oil to travel through, the doomsday description seems entirely unplausible. However, the difficulty of drilling at the depths and the likelihood of a "gusher" now is more clear to me.
( reading notes )
Here's a bibliography (webliography?) for the Deepwater Horizon spill that links to the NOAA and EPA relevant information http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/govdocs/gd/oilspill2010.html . Of the links provided there, this seems most relevant.
I'd read some ... gossip... about the Macondo Prospect as being a field where the oil was mixed with very high pressure gas, under a fragile salt cover. My guess is that most of this information is top corporate secret, but i went searching for generally available information. The best article i could find that helped match up with the gossip, is Davy Jones Discovery Opening New Shelf Frontier In Ultradeep Geology Below Salt (April 2010). [SubSeaIQ on Davey Jones].
From this morning's reading, my simplified geologic understanding is thus: through geologic history, there's been drainage from the North American content south into the Gulf basin, creating sedimentary fans with bio matter. Ocean level changes fluctuate, and huge salt deposits like the Louann Salt shelf formed over the sedimentary fans. More fans form on top of the salt. These sedimentary sands become host to oil and gas as the biomatter decomposes. Underneath the salt, the pressures & temperatures are ridiculously high (440 degrees Fahrenheit, ±27,000 psi), because the salt is a barrier for leakage, while the sands above the salt aren't at such pressures.
The fans and salt features extend from what is now onshore areas to the deepwater and ultradeepwater off shore. On land, there has been exploration under the salt domes (the high pressure of the oil and gas deform the salt shield upward, creating a sign that there's a good reserve). In water, not so much. Thus, the Davey Jones shallow water (20 ft) well, drilled from top of the salt at 19,958 feet to 28,530 feet to more sands, is news worthy in April 2010.
The Macondo prospect is described as Mississippi Canyon Block 252 in the Gulf of Mexico, water depth of 4,993 feet to 5,023 ft (SubSeaIQ gives both depths; "ultradeep" is >5000ft of water). The Deepwater Horizon had just finished drilling to 18,000 ft.
I can't tell from the unclear figures in the article -- probably were fine in the print version -- whether it's likely that the Macondo well was deep enough to be through the salt barrier as the gossip alleged. The gossip also talked about the salt domes collapsing, a doomsday vision of the salt cap falling apart and releasing all the high pressure oil into the gulf. Now that i realize that there'd be THREE MILES of other material for the oil to travel through, the doomsday description seems entirely unplausible. However, the difficulty of drilling at the depths and the likelihood of a "gusher" now is more clear to me.
( reading notes )
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