Oceanography professors say the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 changed the Gulf of Mexico in ways we are still trying to understand.
On April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and resulting in the worst oil spill in history. About 168 million gallons of oil spilled into the gulf before the well was sealed months later.
As the 10th anniversary of the spill approaches, a team of Texas A&M University scientists who conducted various research projects during and after the spill believe that such an event could happen again.
Oceanography professors Piers Chapman and Steve DiMarco at Texas A&M and Antonietta Quigg at Texas A&M-Galveston said the spill was in a class of its own compared to previous oil spills.
“It is still hard to comprehend that many people lost their lives immediately at the time of the spill and hundreds of thousands of people had their lives disrupted and their businesses and livelihoods displaced,” DiMarco said. “One thing we learned much about is the resiliency of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem and coastal communities. We also learned that although there was damage to the environment, there were many natural processes, such as ocean currents, wind and naturally occurring marine microbial life that were in place that helped to prevent the damage from being much worse.”
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