JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Like many of us, Cynthia Blankenship learned of the largest oil spill in US waters by catching a snippet of the news story while making breakfast for her three children the morning after disaster struck.
Cynthia Blankenship (Courtesy)
Blankenship wasn’t just anybody, though. She was just six days into her new role as BP’s Deepwater Gulf of Mexico New Wells Delivery Manager. This was her rig burning and leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.
April 21, 2010, approximately 5:30am. Blankenship noted the time. It was the start of the most mentally and emotionally taxing four months of her life. Blankenship was thrust into the battle of a lifetime: BP head-to-head against the Macondo well with the media and politicians attacking from all sides.
Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig. On April 20, 2010, while drilling at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, an uncontrollable blowout caused an explosion on the rig that killed 11 crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from 40 miles away.
The fire was inextinguishable. Two days later, on April 22, the Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at the sea bed and causing the largest oil spill ever in US waters.
Blankenship will share her experience in the heart of the response, giving an insider’s perspective on what is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
NASA’s Terra Satellites Sees Spill on May 24 Sunlight illuminated the lingering oil slick off the Mississippi Delta on May 24, 2010. The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image the same day. Oil smoothes the ocean surface, making the Sun’s reflection brighter near the centerline of the path of the satellite, and reducing the scattering of sunlight in other places. As a result, the oil slick is brighter than the surrounding water in some places (image center) and darker than the surrounding water in others (image lower right). The tip of the Mississippi Delta is surrounded by muddy water that appears light tan. Bright white ribbons of oil streak across this sediment-laden water. Tendrils of oil extend to the north and east of the main body of the slick. A small, dark plume along the edge of the slick, not far from the original location of the Deepwater Horizon rig, indicates a possible controlled burn of oil on the ocean surface. To the west of the bird’s-foot part of the delta, dark patches in the water may also be oil, but detecting a manmade oil slick in coastal areas can be even more complicated than detecting it in the open ocean. When oil slicks are visible in satellite images, it is because they have changed how the water reflects light, either by making the Sun’s reflection brighter or by dampening the scattering of sunlight, which makes the oily area darker. In coastal areas, however, similar changes in reflectivity can occur from differences in salinity (fresh versus salt water) and from naturally produced oils from plants. (Michon Scott NASA’s Earth Observatory NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Deepwater Horizon – An insider’s perspective on a deadly, $60 billion tragedy Speaker: Cynthia Blankenship, Geologists of Jackson Hole Monday, January 7, 6pm, Teton County Library Auditorium
