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Deepwater Horizon Essay

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Deepwater Horizon was a well-known oil drilling rig which operated within the Macondo Prospect located in the Gulf of Mexico. This oil rig was a fifth generation ultra-deep water dynamically positioned, semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, and was built in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy industries.5 Within the year of 2009, Deepwater Horizon drilled the deepest oil well ever recorded—vertical depth of 35,050 feet in the field of Tiber oil.6 A year later in 2010, it was then commissioned within the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20th, the industry of oil drilling all changed, here is when Deepwater Horizon exploded and began to sink within the Mexican waters.6 On the day of the explosion, Deepwater Horizon was within the process of completing its exploration, doing so by the capping of the well it had bored approximately three miles …show more content…

These compounds vary and contain various levels of toxicity for both marine life and humans.9 The VOCs hexane, heptane, octane, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene are commonly known to make up approximately 15% of crude oil.10 This subset list of compounds have the ability to have a high solubility in water.10 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent some of the most toxic constituents which crude oil consists of, these have the ability to bio-concentrate marine invertebrates.11 PAHs will often comprise up to 10% of the total organic compounds found within crude oil, providing insight into the general distribution of petroleum hydrocarbons found in aquatic environments after an oil spill occurs.11 With these compounds found within the ocean waters after a spill, can pose great threats to marine life and wild life which live and survive within these

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