Two-Inch-Thick Layer of "Missing" Oil Found on Gulf Seafloor
Oil at the Bottom A layer of oil on a sediment core, taken from a site northeast of the blown BP wellhead. Samantha Joye Researchers on board a ship in the Gulf of Mexico have found a layer of oil at least two inches thick, nestled in the depths a mile below the surface, that they believe came from the blown-out BP well. Samantha Joye, a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, set sail August 21 on the research vessel Oceanus and has been posting blog updates throughout the mission. Over the weekend, she wrote that her team found a layer of oil in a valley on the seafloor, about 18 miles from the wellhead. It is two inches thick in some spots, and it rests on top of recently dead sea creatures like shrimp and tubeworms. Joye expected to find some oil on the seafloor,...