BP Oil Spill Leaves a 22-Mile Plume Migrating in Gulf of Mexico
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BP Plc’s oil spill created an underwater plume of degrading crude more than 22 miles (35-kilometers) long that’s migrating across the Gulf of Mexico, according to scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The plume, containing chemicals such as benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene, will remain in deep-sea waters for months as microbes degrade it “relatively slowly,” the research team from the Falmouth, Massachusetts-based institution said in a report released today.