Extraordinary film showing the effect of oil stains on the corrosion of deep wrecks

The 2010 ‘Deep Horizon Disaster’ taught us a lot, especially about the issue of engineering work at great depths and the problems and how to deal with them. The world kilometres below the surface is a completely different place, where knowledge and technological solutions from the surface are not applicable. Both physical phenomena and chemical reactions are different because of the enormous pressures that exist there.

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Six years ago all the news outlets were dominated by the news of a massive oil spill on one of the platforms belonging to the British company BP. Today, we have a continuation of this story in a sense, namely a video recorded by a remote-controlled ROV belonging to the American Geophysical Union. The footage shows how the oil spill has affected wrecks at great depths.

As it turns out, the oil from the spill, as well as the chemicals used to neutralise the threat, have a very negative impact on vessels at depths of less than 1.5km. The corrosion of the wrecks affected by the spill has definitely accelerated, and its effects are visible on the ROV footage. In addition to the wrecks, life also thrives in the deepest parts of the ocean, the researchers argue. Different, exotic and a little scary, but life that needs to be protected. Unfortunately, this life is heavily devastated by accidents like the one on the BP platform.

“Before we undertook the research described above, we didn’t even realise there were so many historical wrecks out there, and I must confess that I have been doing deep-sea research for nearly a decade. As you can see, even with a lot of experience, we still have a lot to learn about this largest ecosystem on Earth. Investigating these wrecks has given us an insight into this extraordinary ecosystem, located in the deep and dark biosphere,” said Leila Hamdan of George Mason University.

As it turned out, in the area of the 2010 disaster in Macondo, there are three historic wrecks within a 6-mile radius, while in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico, there are nearly 2,000! This includes the only German U-boat, number 166, which is of particular interest to historians, if only because of its status as a war grave.

The recorded video shows how sunken wrecks are an important factor for the development of life in the deep sea. The beautiful wreck of the ‘Ewing Bank’ provides a wonderful habitat for local flora and fauna. From the bow through the entire hull, lush life thrives, which is lacking on the bottom around the wreck itself.

Source: washingtonpost.com