3,000,000 gallons of crude oil spewing into the sea? Call the Engineers!

Generally the engineering profession has the practitioners in a back room with there heads down and their fingers on a keyboard. Occasionally, though, a spot light shines. Now is one of those moments.

With a 200,000 gallons per day oil leak a mile below the ocean surface, the conditions are brutal. I calculated the pressure to get a sense of the scale. Generally we design building footings to resist 3,000 pounds per square foot. So think about the amount of pressure a multi-story building applies downward on its footings. Got that? Then make it 100 times higher and that is the pressure encountered at 5,000 feet below sea level. And it’s dark.

Bill Salvin of BP said, “We are essentially taking a four-story building and lowering it 5,000 feet and setting it on the head of a pin.” The latest news indicates that the engineers have the concrete structure just above the leaking pipe and are preparing the surface prior to set down. I assume they are trying to get the best seal possible.

If the plan works, they will be able to connect pipes to the big concrete funnel and collect the oil. Those rascal Engineers are going to figure a way to make some money on this thing as well!

Here’s a couple of photos of what the platform looked like before and after the explosion. I understand the flames were over 200′ high.

Sorry I can’t give a link to credit the photos, they came to me as a forward from a friend (Thanks Rob) and don’t have any link or info attached. I try to honor copyright as best I can.