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if (window!= top) // if your website window is not top top.location.href=location.href Earthjustice received some superb video today from Dut...
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Of course they could stop the leak by removing the pipe or drill three holes around the leak to about 1000 ft, plant explosives and detonate them thus collapsing the hole and stopping the leak. Since the hole is 18,000 ft deep, it is unlikely that this could do more damage. They can stop this, but do not want to compromise the lucrative nature of this oil discovery.
If one believes that oil is being generated abiogenic by the immense heat and pressure that comes from the spinning mass of molten iron in the center of the earth, than this oil leak must be reviewed with this in mind. First, the Russians, believing this theory have consistently found oil by digging this deep or more on land based drillings. So there is no real value in deep water drilling with the exception of reducing the amount of drilling necessary.
If one believes that oil is generated from the center of earth, then one must ask if their is some reason that this oil forms. We have a number of life giving cycles that sustains life on earth including the nitrogen cycle, the oxygen Carbon dioxide cyte and the water vapor cycle. It is possible that this oil generated provides some interface for the spinning ball of molten iron with its interface. Removing this oil has the potential of altering tectonic plate support was well as maintaining the delicate balances that allow this 1500 mile mass of metal to be stable.
Most of the oil recovery has taken place where there are faults that allow this oil to rise closer to the surfaces and places where the tectonic plates come together. We need to look at this situation with fresh eyes.
maybe we should call in the Marines or Navy to blow up the area where the oil is coming from. the ocean floor may settle enough to close the opening. mike and glenda
wow... if things were this easy.... lol
or the ocean floor may open up and create an unstoppable gushing of oil...
If the pressure is so great that it levitated the 100 ton box that failed, the only way to stop the leak is to position a floating rig above the well and lower a drilling pipe and use submersable subs to guide it into the existing hole... the pipe would have an expansion bolt like a concrete lead anchor instead of a drill and once down in the hole to a significant debth, the expansion bolt would be turned to draw the expansion tapper up into the expansion cast to expand it and wedge it tight inside the hole. a shear pin would be placed on the turning shaft above the expansion plug so that it would shear after torqued tight.... I see no other way...
Why can't they build an expansion bolt the correct size of the broken pipe and insert it into the pipe and tighten it to seal the oil leak... similar to a lead expansion bolt used in anchoring a steel plate to concrete... Oh yeah, they are more concerned about tapping the source to capture and sell the oil rather then stopping the leak before it does even more environmental damage.
They could maneuver a floating rig over the source and attach the expansion bolt to a drill pipe and lower it into the hole from the rig and use submersible subs to guide it into the hole, lower it to a depth into the pipe casting or into the rock at what ever level the rock is at and then turn the bolt part to draw in the threaded expansion wedge up into the expansion cast to expand it tight to stop the flow and secure the leak... (similar to a concrete lead expansion bolt) and, if a shear pin is placed at a height in the tuning pipe above the sea floor, then when the expansion bolt tightened to the point it was securely wedged as a stopper in the hole, the pin could be pulled or torque till it sheared which would separate the turning or drilling pipe so as to be able to pull up the pipe that was used to lower the expansion plug. Just an idea that involves sealing the leak with no thought of tapping the well for financial gain but rather with the goal of sealing the leak.
I concur with your idea of the plug using submersibles. At any one time near the southern states, companies, researchers, and treasure hunters have numerous submersibles available for use if BP (or Obama) would just get off their hands and stop this within days. Submersibles have the technology to spot weld, plasma cut, and attached the plug or patch. What the President should have done is call these subs in and plug the hole. Instead of listening to a bunch of bureaucrats on how not to fix this, he should have called in the US Navy deep salvaging team for assistance. This is a clear message to all Americans that oil and world political positions is more important than some beach front and dumb animals. CJ
Maybe you should be working for BP. But, you're lucky you're not because you would be losing your job soon.
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