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[RedWarrior0]

Once again, XKCD shows 'em what for.
(Yeah, vote "yes" for me while you're at it.

Alway, you lose.

[kilakan]

I have a feeling some ass-hole on a coast guard ships gonna throw a light cigarette into it soon...  Other then the cap idea, I like the nuke it right about now, since if this oil keeps up, my whole fishing based area's gonna go bankrupt.... and the oceans gonna die here.

[HAMMERMILL]

A lit cigarette isn't hot enough to ignite diesel fuel, let alone crude oil.

Maybe if some coastie tosses a WP grenade on a little raft into the oil spill...

[RedWarrior0]

"Shit! The flare was supposed to go UP! DAMN IT!"

[kuro_suna]

A lit cigarette isn't hot enough to ignite diesel fuel, let alone crude oil.

Maybe if some coastie tosses a WP grenade on a little raft into the oil spill...

But isn't crude oil a mix of everything including petrol and natural gas?

[Aqizzar]

You're still going to need a lot more than a cigarette.  A burning tar rag could do the trick, the stuff doesn't seem to hard to light up.

Putting all specifics aside, I'm amazed how long it took for hard core politics to finally make it's way into the oil spill.  Six weeks has to be a new record.  And it's oh so much fun to watch.

[Lumbajak]

So how long til it becomes the biggest natural disaster in history?

It's already the second biggest oil spill in history.

Edit: Actually I think it's the third biggest right now?

[RedWarrior0]

So how long til it becomes the biggest natural disaster in history?

Isn't a natural disaster. But it would need to block out the sun and cause global extinction.

[Lumbajak]

Sorry, man-made disaster, or whatever your technical mumbo jumbo is.

I live in a log cabin damnit.

[PTTG??]

It is the second largest oil spill in history, and the largest accidental one. The oil spilled during the gulf war remains a larger total.

[C4lv1n]

I'm betting that nuking it will be the best option, if you use a small scale nuke there will be (relatively) less fallout and radiation, I mean both the US and Russia did underwater tests before, it's really deep, anything that could die down there is probly dead from the oil, and there will probably be no fallout, because fallout is irradiated dust, and that will stay in the water, and settle to the bottom.

Besides, it would be DAMN cool, solving anything with a nuke.

Alternatively they could just use a REALLY big non-nuclear explosive, which may do pretty much the same, but would be harder to put in place.













EDIT:: Damn it, I just lost the game.

[PTTG??]

Alright, you want to know why nukes are stupid? Do you want the same people who designed the rig- the oil experts- to try it again, but with nukes?

HEADLINE: BP experts annihilate Florida...

[The Architect]

I'm betting that nuking it will be the best option, if you use a small scale nuke there will be (relatively) less fallout and radiation, I mean both the US and Russia did underwater tests before, it's really deep, anything that could die down there is probly dead from the oil, and there will probably be no fallout, because fallout is irradiated dust, and that will stay in the water, and settle to the bottom.

Oh yea, because dust is the only thing that can be irradiated. Never heard of Heavy Water, have we?

[olemars]

Bombing the well should be the utterly last ditch option since the result is very unpredictable. You could end up making the leak worse.

[Footkerchief]

I'm betting that nuking it will be the best option, if you use a small scale nuke there will be (relatively) less fallout and radiation, I mean both the US and Russia did underwater tests before, it's really deep, anything that could die down there is probly dead from the oil, and there will probably be no fallout, because fallout is irradiated dust, and that will stay in the water, and settle to the bottom.

Oh yea, because dust is the only thing that can be irradiated. Never heard of Heavy Water, have we?

Heavy water is water that contains deuterium, which would be essentially harmless (due to its instant dilution).  Tritiated water is briefly capable of posing a health risk, but again, it probably wouldn't be concentrated enough, and it doesn't bioaccumulate.  Bomb-tritiated water from nuclear testing was a useful tracer for scientists studying the water cycle, so it would have been obvious if it caused health problems.

In short, any organisms not destroyed by the blast itself would ingest only highly diluted heavy/tritiated water, so it's a non-issue.