27 June 2010

Is it "raining oil" in Louisiana??


This video (and a couple others at YouTube) claims to show oil on the ground inshore from the Gulf as a result of rain.  While it seems unlikely that oil itself could be vaporized and recondense as oil, there are allegations that the dispersants applied in the Gulf change the dynamics.

I've written the title of this post as a question because it's also possible that the videos are faked or are misrepresenting the situation.  TYWKIWBI gets several hundred visitors/week from Louisiana.  Can anyone there confirm (or refute) the observations in this video???

6 comments:

  1. Well it has rained fish here in Australia, so why not oil!?

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  2. It would be no surprise that there could potentially be oil in the rain well inland from the shore.

    In particular, water spouts have been known to suck up frogs, fish, and other bits o' pond/sea life and deposit them quite a ways inland from the sea.

    Given that the oil is oft on the surface, there is no particular reason why it wouldn't be picked up by a water spout, too.

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  3. "The far more likely source is closer to Earth – runoff from roads, parking lots, and industrial facilities in the area where the video clip was filmed."

    http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0625/Raining-oil-in-Louisiana-Not-likely.

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  4. Yes, water spouts have picked up fish, frog, and other sea debris, but as far as I have heard (I'm from Minnesota), there hasn't been any really bad weather down in the Gulf, no hurricane, and no tornadoes. If there haven't been any tornadoes, then there cannot be, as far as I am aware, any cause for the oil to get inland.

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  5. True enough. Until it becomes systemic/widespread, I'm fsr more inclined to believe that it is simply runoff.

    Certainly, in CA, the first sin after a dry spell lifts tons of oils off the roads.

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  6. So much denial.

    Rain is caused by evaporation of water. Oil evaporates also, added chemicals in the water which were meant to "break up" the oil further helps the evaporation.

    /story

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