Free Example of Water Eased Oil Removal in Gulf Essay

The official estimate of oil that spilled in to the ocean was 2×10^8 gal of oil and the alkane gas was 2×10^8kg of C1-C5. Naturally it would take years for the oil to disappear from the water but this was not the case because it took months. One reason could be due to the physical activity of water. The fact that Gulf water was seeded with hydrocarbon eating microbes that consumed the oil and gas could also be the reason.  The water movement made the oil to split giving microbes a better position to consume it. Gal of dispersant was added to the oil and gas which aided in breaking up of the oil into droplets (Kemsley, 2012).

The short period of oil disappearing from water gave the scientists a challenge to find out what might have happened. Professor Valentine and his group came up with a model explaining that it could have been caused by microbial growth and metabolism as well as water movements.  They explained that water movements led to mixing of microbes with oil and gas thus microbes were able to consume it more. They also suggested that the oil spill led to an increase in number of microbes in the ocean which consumed the different types of hydrocarbons (Kemsley, 2012).

Valentine explained a phenomenon called autoinoculation which suggests that propane is consumed easily and quickly by bacteria. He also explained that bacteria were not deprived oxygen because water moved around and bacteria mixed with water that was not affected by the spill (Kemsley, 2012).

The model is important to scientific understanding of physical movement of water and mixing with microbes. It also gives an understanding of the characteristic of alkane gas that is, how easily and quickly they can be consumed by bacteria for example propane. Valentine explained that the movement of water exposed microbial populations to fresh oil and gas thus they were well provided with nutrients and oxygen.  The model is important because it is based on vertical mixing which is a representation of underwater topography showing that vertical mixing played an important role. The model also helps in understanding the Deep water horizon spill because it covers more space and time. Such a model will help scientist on how to respond incase of future spills (Kemsley, 2012).