Mapping
Offshore Oil in the Gulf of Mexico
With
Hurricane Harvey headed toward the coast of Texas, local officials and
residents are preparing for the emergency.
But another “waterborne city of oil rigs rises off the coasts of Texas,
Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi” in the Gulf of Mexico is also bracing
during the storm.
National Geographic published a map of the
Gulf of Mexico (excerpt above—click to enlarge) following the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, fire, and
oil spill. The map, Gulf of Mexico: A Geography of Offshore Oil was published in 2010
following the disaster that year in April.
“The explosion and fire sank the 58,000-ton mobile rig, killing 11
workers. An estimated 4.9 million
barrels of oil flowed from the well, creating the worst accidental marine oil
spill in history.”
The
map identifies the locations of the more than 50,000 wells and 43,000 miles of
pipeline located in the Gulf of Mexico. The darker brown points identify oil or
gas offshore platforms. The lighter
brown points are oil or gas wells. The
brown lines represent oil- or gas-related pipelines. The darker the small squares, the deeper the
water. According to the map, the maximum
depth of the Gulf of Mexico is unknown, but estimates range to 14,000 feet.
The
Perdido floating production platform, southeast of Padre Island, operates in
8,000 feet of water—a world record. The
Tiber well is the world’s deepest offshore well. Petronius in the eastern part of the Gulf of
Mexico is the world’s tallest fixed platform.
The Macondo well, just south of Biloxi, Mississippi, was the site of the
Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The
map is available for circulation for research and learning projects from the
Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the
second floor of Bracken Library. Digital
copies of the map are available for educational or personal purposes upon request.
For
more information, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.
No comments:
Post a Comment