1. Oil spills occur when liquid petroleum is accidentally released into the environment from tankers, drilling rigs, pipelines, and storage tanks.
2. Oil spills can spread for hundreds of miles, coating beaches and impacting marine life and coastal habitats. They can take weeks or months to clean up.
3. Major oil spills like the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon caused extensive environmental damage by killing wildlife like birds, fish, and mammals through smothering and toxicity. They also had long-lasting economic impacts on industries like fishing and tourism.
1. Oil spills occur when liquid petroleum is accidentally released into the environment from tankers, drilling rigs, pipelines, and storage tanks.
2. Oil spills can spread for hundreds of miles, coating beaches and impacting marine life and coastal habitats. They can take weeks or months to clean up.
3. Major oil spills like the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon caused extensive environmental damage by killing wildlife like birds, fish, and mammals through smothering and toxicity. They also had long-lasting economic impacts on industries like fishing and tourism.
1. Oil spills occur when liquid petroleum is accidentally released into the environment from tankers, drilling rigs, pipelines, and storage tanks.
2. Oil spills can spread for hundreds of miles, coating beaches and impacting marine life and coastal habitats. They can take weeks or months to clean up.
3. Major oil spills like the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon caused extensive environmental damage by killing wildlife like birds, fish, and mammals through smothering and toxicity. They also had long-lasting economic impacts on industries like fishing and tourism.
1. Oil spills occur when liquid petroleum is accidentally released into the environment from tankers, drilling rigs, pipelines, and storage tanks.
2. Oil spills can spread for hundreds of miles, coating beaches and impacting marine life and coastal habitats. They can take weeks or months to clean up.
3. Major oil spills like the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon caused extensive environmental damage by killing wildlife like birds, fish, and mammals through smothering and toxicity. They also had long-lasting economic impacts on industries like fishing and tourism.
When oil is spilled in the ocean, it initially spreads in the water (primarily on the surface), depending on its relative density and composition. The oil slick formed may remain cohesive; or may break up in the case of rough seas. Waves, water currents, and wind force the oil slick to drift over large areas, impacting the open ocean, coastal areas, and marine and terrestrial habitats in the path of the drift.
ARE OIL SPILLS
COMMON? As said oil spills occur from
tanker accidents and blowouts at
offshore drilling rigs. They occur quite often and spill sizes vary greatly.
CAUSES OF OIL SPILL
Oil spills into rivers , bays and the ocean most often are caused by accidents involving tankers, barges, pipeline, refineries, drilling rigs and storage facilities. SPILLS CAN BE CAUSED BY: Sinking or leakage of Oil carrying vessels or Oil pipelines. Illegal dumping by industries. Countries at war. Natural disasters.
GREATEST IN HISTORY M/T HEAVEN TANKER, 1991 Occurred on April 11, 1991 when a
shoddily maintained ship loaded with
144,000 tonnes (1 million barrels) of crudeoil,exploded,caughtfireandsank offthecoastofGenoa, Italy. THE CLEANUP: The Italian authorities acted quickly, with hundreds of men fighting a fire which was difficult to access and distributing more than six miles of inflatable barriers, submerged a metre below the surface, around the vessel to controlthespillage.
Mexico. An explosion occurred on an offshore oildrilling rig, called Deepwater Horizon, owned by the oil firm BP. Considered one of the largest accidental spills in history, probably leaked 650,000 tonnes of oil.
VARIOUS OTHER OIL SPILLS:
IXTOC 1 OIL WELL, 1979 Location: Bay of Campeche, Mexico Oil spilled: 140 million gallons
NOWRUZ OIL FIELD, 1983
Location: Persian Gulf Oil spilled: 80 million gallons ABT SUMMER, 1991 Location: Off the coast of Angola Oil spilled: 80 million gallons FERGANA VALLEY, 1992 Location: Uzbekistan Oil spilled: 87.7 million gallons
EFFECTS OF OIL SPILLS
HUMAN HEALTH
LOCAL INDUSTRIE S
MARINE ECOSYSTEM
EFFECT ON LOCAL INDUSTRIES
Local industries effected
include TOURISM, as fishing, swimming or sailing is made impossible. Oil spills can cause serious damage to fisheries. Physical contamination can affect stocks and disrupt business activities. Industries that rely on fresh sea water are also effected and cannot resume their activities till the water has been cleaned up.
EFFECT ON HUMAN HEALTH Inhalation of vapour, touching
oil slicks and consuming
contaminated sea food results in various diseases. Exposure may cause neurological, acute toxic effects, and also problems of respiratory system. People who live near the effected areas suffers from nausea, throat infections, nose and eye irritations along with migraines and headaches.
EFFECT ON MARINE ECOSYSTEM
Oil or hydrocarbons can affect plants and animals
in different ways. One of the most visually alarming physical effects
on marine birds and mammals is through
smothering, where oil coats the outside of their bodies, covering feathers and fur. Toxic compounds from the spilt oil can be ingested
by animal directly, in their prey, as they breath or
as they clean their fur or feathers, causing short and long term negative impacts.
EEFFCET ON VEGETATION Oil spills have impacts on vegetation. Oil reaching the root areas of plants is harmful for them. Loss of sea grasses and other vegetation is
harmful as these are food supplies for organisms.
. Living coral is also vulnerable to oil slicks. If the living coral dies, then the reef of coral can be destroyed by wave erosion. This means many fish and animals lose their homes.
LONG TERM IMPACTS
Oil, sinks and can have damaging effects on
fragile underwater ecosystems, killing many fish
and smaller organisms that are essential links in the global food chain. Unbalanced food web- when oil spills happen around breeding season, like the gulf oil disaster, egg and larvae populations were diminished, effecting food web. Decline in recreation- Gulf states that relied on fishing and recreation have been deprived of both and it has given a serious blow to tourism.
PREVENTIONS 1. Building double hulls into vessels, which
reduces the risk and severity of a spill in
case of a collision or grounding.
2. MAKING SHIPPING SAFER:
1.
Ship crew must be well trained and
experienced. 2. Individual tanks within ships should be limited in size so that spills are smaller. 3. Navigator should be provided up to date information about changing weather conditions. Since cleanup after an oil spill is so ineffective and difficult, that it does not always fully rehabilitate affected areas, therefore, prevention is most important.
4. BIOREMEDIATION OR BIODEGRADATION:
Biodegradation is the name for the two
processes used in promoting the natural biodegradation process of the spilled oil. The two processes are bio augmentation (application of microbes to degrade oil) and bio stimulation (addition of nutrients).
BIO AUGMENTATION: This process is used in many waters(both sea and fresh) to degrade waste such as oil as well as raw sewage and industrial discharges. Microbes are added to the water to feed o these wastes. The species of microbes added will not compete with the naturally occurring species so that degradation is as efficient as possible.
BIO STIMULATION Forthemicrobestoworkefficientlytherehastobe enoughphosphorus,nitrogenandcarbonavailable.In thecaseofanoilspill,thecarbonlevelescalatesand thenitrogenlevelsaretoolowtoallowthemicrobes toworkatoptimalefficiency.Fertiliserscontaining thesetwoelementsareaddedtoenablemicrobesto degradetheoil
CAN THE ENVIRONMENT BE RESTORED
AFTER AN OIL SPILL? About 10-15% of an oil spill can be removed through mechanical and chemical means. The rest remains in the water. Many marine organisms recover in about three to ten years. Beaches covered with oil slicks may take several years before they become clean and usable again. It has been found that ocean processes in general can absorb oil spills and break down hydrocarbons.
YOU PRESENTED BY: 1.) CHINMAY KRISHNA 2.) KARTIK GUGNANI 3.) RIMA
