Oil-weathering behavior in Arctic environments |
| |
| Authors: | JAMES R PAYNE G DANIEL McNABB JR JOHN R CLAYTON JR |
| |
| Institution: | Science Applications International Corporation, 10240 Sorrento Valley Road, Suite 204, San Diego, California 92121, USA. |
| |
| Abstract: | Oil-weathering processes in ice-free subarctic and Arctic waters include spreading, evaporation, dissolution, dispersion of whole-oil droplets into the water column, photochemical oxidation, water-in-oil emulsification, microbial degradation, adsorption onto suspended particulate material, ingestion by organisms, sinking, and sedimentation. While many of these processes also are important factors in ice-covered waters, the various forms of sea ice (depending on the active state of ice growth, extent of coverage and/or decay) impart drastic, if not controlling, changes to the rates and relative importance of different oil-weathering mechanisms. Flow-through seawater wave-tank experiments in a cold room at ?35°C and studies in the Chukchi Sea in late winter provide data on oil fate and effects for a variety of potential oil spill scenarios in the Arctic. Time-series chemical weathering data are presented for Prudhoe Bay crude oil released under and encapsulated in growing first-year columnar ice through spring breakup. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
