Tuesday July 30, 2024
NOAA Fisheries —
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, tragically killing 11 workers and injuring 17 others before eventually sinking. The resulting catastrophic leak from the wellhead on the ocean floor released approximately 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. The well discharged oil and natural gas continuously and uncontrollably for 87 days before it could be capped, resulting in the largest offshore oil spills in U.S. history.
Cumulatively, over the course of the spill, oil was detected on more than 43,300 square miles of the ocean, an area about the size of the state of Virginia. Currents, winds, and tides carried these surface oil slicks to the Gulf states, damaging more than 1,300 miles of shoreline, including beaches, bays, estuaries, and marshes from eastern Texas to the Florida Panhandle. In addition, some lighter oil compounds evaporated from the slicks, exposing air-breathing organisms like marine mammals and sea turtles to noxious fumes at the sea surface.