0 citations0 references

Using Natural Abundance Radiocarbon To Trace the Flux of Petrocarbon to the Seafloor Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Environmental Science & Technology2014Vol. 49(2), pp. 847–854

Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2014 papers

Jeffrey P. Chanton, Tingting Zhao, B. E. Rosenheim, Samantha B. Joye, Samantha Bosman, Charlotte A Brunner, Kevin M. Yeager, Arne R. Diercks, David J. Hollander

Abstract

In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon accident released 4.6–6.0 × 10(11) grams or 4.1 to 4.6 million barrels of fossil petroleum derived carbon (petrocarbon) as oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Natural abundance radiocarbon measurements on surface sediment organic matter in a 2.4 × 10(10) m(2) deep-water region surrounding the spill site indicate the deposition of a fossil-carbon containing layer that included 1.6 to 2.6 × 10(10) grams of oil-derived carbon. This quantity represents between 0.5 to 9.1% of the released petrocarbon, with a best estimate of 3.0–4.9%. These values may be lower limit estimates of the fraction of the oil that was deposited on the seafloor because they focus on a limited mostly deep-water area of the Gulf, include a conservative estimate of thickness of the depositional layer, and use an average background or prespill radiocarbon value for sedimentary organic carbon that produces a conservative value. A similar approach using hopane tracer estimated that 4–31% of 2 million barrels of oil that stayed in the deep sea settled on the bottom. Converting that to a percentage of the total oil that entered into the environment (to which we normalized our estimate) converts this range to 1.8 to 14.4%. Although extrapolated over a larger area, our independent estimate produced similar values.

Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2014 papers

Abstract

Related Papers