Gulf Spill Gives Scientists Deja Vu

It's the 1979 Ixtoc spill all over again
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2010 2:35 PM CDT
Gulf Spill Gives Scientists Deja Vu
A young heron sits dying amidst oil splattering underneath mangrove on an island impacted by oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Barataria Bay, May 23, 2010.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The Deepwater Horizon rig wasn't the first to explode and spew oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists are looking back to a 1979 disaster that, they tell the Miami Herald , offers insight into the current disaster. “Everybody keeps saying the spill is unprecedented,” says one geologist. “That is such bullshit. We had perfect precedence.” The Ixtoc I, a Mexican-owned well, dumped 138 million gallons into the Gulf over 9 months.

“It coated the Texas beaches in a ribbon of oil 30 to 50 feet” wide, one researcher recalls, costing area restaurants and hotels millions, before tropical storms finally cleared the beaches. The well was capped with a cement plug. The Ixtoc was the largest accidental spill ever, but Deepwater Horizon could overtake it. BP says it's leaking "only" 210,000 gallons a day, but scientists say it's closer to 4 million. (More oil spill stories.)

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