Getting Under the Surface

With many questions still unanswered about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Earth Institute staff have been providing perspective to the public and press on many aspects, from the spill’s magnitude and spread, to the technologies available to abate it, and its long-term policy implications. Marine geophysicist Tim Crone was one of the first to openly question official estimates of the oil’s rate of flow (first on NPR, then in a New York Times op-ed)–and those estimates have since climbed accordingly. Then, writing for CNN.com, deep-sea oceanographer Andreas Thurnherr helped introduce the grim idea that the oil could be spreading not just on the surface, but in difficult-to-track undersea plumes–a scenario now also confirmed. Proposals for halting the flow have gone all the way to planting a nuclear bomb on the seafloor–an idea discussed (and savaged) by oil geophysicist Roger N. Anderson, with public radio host Leonard Lopate. As Earth Institute executive director Steve Cohen told a BBC reporter: “Probably [this] will go down in history as the worst environmental disaster that America has ever had.” Beyond the glare of media, many Earth Institute scientists now are starting up research projects to measure the spill and its effects, and they expect to be in the Gulf during coming months. Stay tuned.

Fuente: Earth Institute, Columbia University