posted
I haven't been following this super closely but I'll address that last one:
quote:And if this would just make it worse, aren’t we in danger of terrorists letting off explosions on the ocean floor?
Security of our pipelines in general is a concern. However, the level of technology and expenditure needed to cause damage at that depth and with sufficient accuracy and force ... well there's a lot more targets with a better pay-off for terrorists.
quote:Originally posted by T:man: Why don't we drop a giant rock on it?
Might not close the leak up but would slow it down, right?
I think the current strategy is to dump a lot of clay and cement on it. Pretty close to the same strategy. Dropping a really huge rock would probably work well, but I think the reason why that hasn't been done yet is the difficulty of getting a really huge rock into position. We can't move really giant stuff very well.
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quote:And if this would just make it worse, aren’t we in danger of terrorists letting off explosions on the ocean floor?
There aren't that many drill holes spewing oil into the ocean to start with. Just blowing up a bomb on the ocean floor wouldn't create a leak that isn't already there.
And as I understand it, sealing it with an explosive has been considered, but it could go either way. They really couldn't predict the results, so they're trying other things. I wouldn't be surprised if they run out of other options, they may still try it, but it's not a favorite option.
[ May 26, 2010, 10:32 PM: Message edited by: Glenn Arnold ]
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The Oil is under a lot of pressure--pressure from tons and tons of rock and ocean water put on top of it.
Normally its held in check by lots of rock piled on top of it to make a tight seal.
The drill drilled through thousands and thousands of feet of water--then thousands and thousands of feet of rock, to break that seal.
Imagine taking a pencil and sticking it in the bottom of a "Big Gulp". Your diet coke would come pouring out.
A torpedo is not a drill. A torpedo explodes outward. So the best a big torpedo could do would be to make the whole larger.
Oil rigs are large. Submarines are expensive and difficult to run. It would take years of training and tens of millions of dollars for a terrorist group to get a submarine, buy torpedoes, train and learn how to run them, then find a place to shoot. There are easier targets.
A large rock is a viable choice, but it would have to be so large as to fit over the whole and all and any crevices around the whole. Back to the soda experiment. It seems easy to fix the problem by placing your thumb over the whole so the soda quits pouring out. Yet when you do so some soda will still trickle around your finger and get your hand sticky.
The present hopes are two fold. First to pump in some special mud that will solidify like a rock after seeping into all the nooks and crannies and stopping all the leaks. The other is to drill more holes in the cup, but have these connected to siphon hoses so that they can drain the diet coke and lessen the pressure pushing it out into your lap.
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quote:A torpedo is not a drill. A torpedo explodes outward. So the best a big torpedo could do would be to make the whole larger.
No. The best a torpedo (and by that I mean an explosive charge placed properly) could do is to send a detonation wave through the seabed, breaking up the rocky material and allowing it to settle into the "whole"(sic), thus sealing it. But that's only one end of the range of possibilities, and it's a pretty big gamble. The WORST it could do is enlarge the hole.
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posted
DM, my mind kept shorting out when I got to whole. "...as to fit over the whole..." The whole what!? Posts: 1711 | Registered: Jun 2004
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