Next Step to Stop the Oil

If a massive dome to cover the source of the oil coming into the Gulf of Mexico fails, crews are ready to clog it. Engineers are deciding if they can close a failed blowout preventer by stuffing it with trash, says Adm. Thad Allen (Commandant of the Coast Guard). Th 48-foot-tall, 450-ton device sits on the well at the heart of the Gulf oil spill. It is designed to stop leaks, but isn't working properly since the oil rig exploded April 20th and then sank. Allen says the next tactic will be called a junk shot. They will take debris and shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it and stop the leak. The Oil company BP attempted to lower a 4-story vessel over the well. That plan was thwarted after ice-like hydrate crystals formed when gas combined with water. It blocked the dome and made it buoyant. It has not abandoned the dome plan. They are considering the junk shot and other possible solutions. Trying to stuff shut the preventer hasn't been attempted because of possible challenges and risks along with the depth beneath the water's surface. Handling the crystals could take two days. Officials are considering heating the dome or adding methanol to dissolve the hydrates. If the hydrates are gone, BP hopes to connect the dome to a drill ship and suck the oil from the containment dome.

There is estimated 210,000 gallons of crude oil is pouring from the well every day. Many things are being done, like skimming the surface and trying to capture or break up the spilled oil, to prevent the oil moving toward the Gulf coastline. People could see oil hit the coast by Tuesday.

Scientists are examining tar balls to see if they are from the oil spill. Tar balls are shaped like pancakes that are pieces of emulsified oil. They can occur naturally.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon. It left 11 men presumed dead aboard the rig. The company's vice president for drilling in the Gulf and BP employees were on board the rig at the time of the explosion. They were discussing its positive safety performance.

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I think that what happened is very sad and terrifying. I hope that the family of the people who died are doing well and that the people who are injured are recovering fast. I think that we need to try anything we can to stop the oil spill. We are talking about a spill that is really close to reaching the coast and that is harming many animals and the economic loss to our beaches and tourism. I do agree that we need to do research on the attempts to clean up the oil before we actually try it in the water. I am not quite sure if shooting, under high pressure, debris into the preventer to try and stop the leak is good because we putting garbage into the oceans. I think that it is a good try and if it works then great but if it doesn't work, we have to get all of the garbage that we put in the water out. We need to protect the animals from the oil and the garbage that we might be putting into the oceans.