Die Ölkatastrophe der Deepwater Horizon im Jahr 2010 war die größte Ölpest in der Geschichte der USA. Die Katastrophe wurde durch die Explosion der Bohrinsel Deepwater Horizon verursacht, die nicht nur 11 Todesopfer gleichzeitig forderte, sondern auch fast 210 Millionen Gallonen Rohöl in den Golf von Mexiko freisetzte.
Zwölf Jahre später wurden Hunderte Millionen Dollar als Reaktion auf dieses katastrophale Ereignis ausgegeben, und Wissenschaftler arbeiten daran, zu verstehen, wo all dieses Öl endet, ein Konzept, das als Umweltschicksal bekannt ist.
Die am häufigsten diskutierten Schicksale von Ölverschmutzungen im Meer sind biologischer Abbau (Mikroorganismen verbrauchen und zersetzen das Öl), Verdunstung (flüssiges Öl wird zu Gas) und Adsorption, nachdem das Öl an Küsten gestrandet ist.
A team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has found that after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, nearly 10 percent of the oil floating in the Gulf was dissolved by sunlight into seawater - a process known as "photolysis". ". The findings are published today in the paper "Sunlight-driven dissolution is the main fate of offshore oil" in the journal Science Advances.
"During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, the amount of oil that was converted by sunlight into compounds dissolved in seawater was different from what we usually know about the fate of oil (such as Biodegradation and stranding on shorelines) are comparable."
"One of the most fascinating aspects of this discovery is that it may affect our understanding of where oil is going elsewhere, and whether the outcome is good or bad," said lead author Danielle Haas Freeman, a student in the joint MIT/WHOI project. Say.
"If a significant portion of this oil is converted by sunlight and dissolved into seawater, it could mean that less oil ends up elsewhere, such as in sensitive coastal ecosystems. On the other hand, we have to consider the impact of these compounds on marine life. impact to determine whether the net result is positive or negative."
To make this important discovery, Freeman and Ward used a custom light-emitting diode (LED) reactor to measure how the velocity of this oil's fate changed under different types of light, such as ultraviolet and visible light.
"The process by which oil has been found to photolysis has actually been around for more than 50 years," Ward said. "But what's new here is that we understand how this process changes with the wavelength of light, which we determined using an LED reactor. This is key information that allows us to estimate the importance of this process during a leak."
Neuartige Messmethoden mit LEDs bieten zudem die Möglichkeit, zu bestimmen, welche Bedingungen für die Steuerung des Prozesses am wichtigsten sind. Das Team erstellte hypothetische Leckageszenarien mit unterschiedlich dicken Ölteppichen, unterschiedlichen Jahreszeiten, unterschiedlichen Orten auf der ganzen Welt und unterschiedlichen Lichtarten. Sie bemerkten, dass einige dieser sich ändernden Bedingungen wichtiger waren als andere.
Oil at the ocean's surface may have a new fate, a concept that has major implications for developing future oil spill research and spill response strategies. It is not known what the fate and potential toxicity of these sunlight-generated compounds are, making it challenging to assess the impact of this oil's fate. The researchers encourage the field to lean toward these gaps in knowledge.
"While our findings suggest that a significant portion of surface oil can dissolve into the ocean upon exposure to sunlight, the logical next step is to assess its persistence and potential harm to aquatic animals," Ward said.
