pipeline leaks, and one was the purpose- The United States has sustained 47 ful release in Iraq. documented oil spills, the largest number Geography The 104 worst spills in the world tend to of any country in the world. The high in- In The concentrate in two types of locations. Pe- cidence of spills is linked to the country’s troleum source areas tend to have a high high oil consumption. The U.S. uses near- News™ incidence of spills, generally associated ly one-quarter of the world’s oil. This high with blowouts, explosions and trans-ship- rate of consumption requires the handling ping accidents. These regions of the world and transfer of huge amounts of oil daily, include the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of making the chances of spills more prob- Neal Lineback Mexico, where well drilling is prevalent. able. and Mandy Lineback Gritzner The other common spill location is along Louisiana has sustained signifi cant 14 international oil trade routes, particularly oil spills, the largest of any state, followed in the North Atlantic, around Europe, East by California (8), Pennsylvania (4), Texas THE WORLD’S Asia and around Africa’s Cape of Good (3) and Alaska (3). These are states with Hope. These areas are particularly suscep- large transfers of petroleum between pipe- BIGGEST OIL SPILLS tible to ship collisions and breakups. Fur- lines and ships. The world has followed news of the oil thermore, storms often contribute to these Drilling and transporting technologies spill from British Petroleum’s (BP) Deep- shipping disasters. have made major advances in the past 40 water Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico since The remaining spills are more random years, but improvements in spillage and the oil rig exploded April 22. By the time and are usually linked to aging or failed cleanup technologies apparently have not. engineers temporarily capped the well equipment (pipeline breaks), natural haz- The Deepwater disaster in the Gulf of July 15, it had poured an estimated 3.0 mil- ards (hurricanes) or human error ( Mexico has been a wake-up call for both lion to 8.7 million barrels of oil into Gulf Valdez). the petroleum industry and government waters. How does the magnitude of this Of the spill disasters on or near U.S. ter- agencies that oversee the industry. Lessons spill compare with past oil spills? ritory, the most signifi cant are the 1911Cal- learned from this likely will yield Since 1911, there have been at least 17 oil ifornia spill, the BP Deepwater spill and more safeguards and new technologies for spills around the world exceeding 30 mil- the Greenpoint oil spill in that the future. The human and monetary cost lion U.S. gallons or 715,000 barrels. One occurred from the 1940s to 1950s (400,000 of the spill, however, will be high and long barrel of oil equals 42 U.S. gallons. to 700,000 barrels) from a crude oil pro- lasting to the Gulf Coast. Unless it derives from a ship disaster, oil cessing plant. The 1989 Exxon Valdez ship And that is Geography in the News. Au- spill magnitude is usually diffi cult to esti- spilled approximately 260,000 barrels of gust 20, 2010. #1055. mate. The volume of oil carried by a ship oil in Prince William Sound in Alaska, Co-authors are Neal Lineback, Appalachian is always known. Most spills on land are ranking it the fourth largest in the United State University Professor Emeritus of easier to estimate than those that occur un- States and the 36th largest in the world. Geography, and Geographer Mandy Lineback derwater from oil well blowouts. Gritzner. University The recent Gulf spill was apparently News Director Jane the second largest ever to occur. Cali- Biggest Oil Disasters, 1910-2010 Nicholson serves fornia’s legendary oil spill from as technical a well blowout in Kern editor. County in 1911 may have dumped an in- credible 9 million barrels, accord- ing to the Los Angeles Times (June 13, 2010), mak- ing it the largest spill ©2010 ever. The purposeful release of oil by the Iraqi army during In Millions of Barrels of Oil Desert Storm T. Smith in 1991 may have 9 4 2 1 0.5 dumped two million Geography in the News 08/20/10 to six million barrels into Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spill#Largest_oil_spills the Persian Gulf, probably making it the third largest spill. Of the 17 largest spills ever, 10 were Sources: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/ from ship groundings, collisions or stories/the-13-largest-oil-spills-in-history; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ explosions, four were from oil derrick List_of_oil_spills; and http://www.envirowonk.com/content/view/68/1/ or platform disasters, two were from

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