Visualizing Environmental Science

Fairbanks

Valdez

Chukchi Prudhoe Bay

Sea

Bering

Sea

Gulf of Alaska

Prince William Sound

RUSSIA ALASKA CANADA

0

0

300 Kilometers

300 Miles

Kodiak

Island

Trans-Alaska

Pipeline

Populations that

are recovering

Clams

Intertidal communities

Orcas

Marbled murrelets

Mussels

Sea otters

Populations that

are not yet recovering

Common loons

Cormorants (3 species)

Harbor seals

Harlequin ducks

Pacific herring

Pigeon guillemots

Vermilion

Bay

Atchafalaya

Bay Venice

Bay St Louis

Mobile

Breton

AtchafalayaBay Sound

Terrebonne

Bay

Venice

Bay St Louis

OrleansNew Gulfport

Mobile Milton

Pensacola Freeport

St. Andrew

Breton

Sound

Mississippi Canyon 252

Incident Location

Trajectory

Uncertainty

Light

Medium

Heavy

Potential

beached oil

Amount spilled

Year (million barrels of oil) Event Location

1910 9 Drilling rig hits pressured oil pocket Kern County, California

1991 6 Oil dumped by Iraqi army during first Gulf War Kuwait

2010 4 to 5 Deepwater Horizon oil rig fails Gulf of Mexico, south of Louisiana

1979 2.5 to 3.5 Exploratory well Ixtoc I fails Bay of Campeche, Gulf of Mexico

1979 2.1 Oil tankers Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain collide Trinidad and Tobago

Integral Consulting, “2005 Assess-

ment of Lingering Oil and Resource

Injuries from the Exxon Valdez Oil

Spill (Restoration Project 040776).”

Natalie B. Fobes/NG Image Collection

© Christopher Morris/VII/Corbis

Compiled from Casselman, A., (2012).

10 Biggest Oil

Spills in History

. Popular Mechanics. Moss, L., (2010).

The 13 Largest Oil Spills in History

. Microsoft News

Network, July 12, 2010; Harvey, S. (2010). “California’sLegendary Oil Spill”.

Los Angeles Times

, June 13, 2010.

a. A week after the oil spill,

a rising tide lifts oil from

an island in Prince William

Sound, Alaska, 1989.

b. The extent of the Exxon Valdez

oil spill (black arrows). Water

currents caused the slick to spread

rapidly for hundreds of kilometers.

c. Nearshore coastal wildlife status, Prince

William Sound, Alaska, 2005.

d. Oil released in the Deepwater Horizon event reached the

southern coast of the United States from Louisiana to Florida.

e. A brown pelican covered with oil from the Deepwater

Horizon spill tries to fly.

f. Five largest oil spills in world history. The Exxon Valdez spill, while not among the top

ten spills in world history, was particularly harmful because it occurred in a highly sensitive

coastal environment.

✓✓THE PLANNER

Environmental InSight

The Exxon Valdez and Deepwater

Horizon oil spillsÊ UÊ ˆ}ÕÀiʣǰ££

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