# Hurricanes and the oil spill

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/539557>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 15, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/539557 "2010-05-15T17:16:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/539557/1 "2010-05-15T17:16:48Z")

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It’s getting to be hurricane season, and the oil continues to gush from the gulf floor. My first thought is “Holy shit, it’s gonna be raining oil over several states! Catastrophe!” But the more I think about it, perhaps that kind of dispersion is exactly what’s needed. The oil would be spread over a huge area, which can absorb it more easily than the fragile coastline.

Should residents of the gulf coast welcome a hurricane or fear one?

Is there a factual answer to this, or does it depend on too many variables?

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**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/539557/2 "2010-05-16T02:20:57Z")

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LOTS of variables, because an oil spill of this magnitude hasn’t happened before in this particular ecosystem, which is a breeding ground for fish that would eventually find their way out into the greater world of oceans.

A decent rundown is on this [Science News](http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/58846/title/Gulf_oil_spill_a_slow-motion_hurricane_) site.

Points of note:

> [@](#):
>
> For University of New Orleans marsh ecologist Denise Reed, a primary concern is how these spring storms — and later, summer hurricanes — might aggravate oil’s intrusion into coastal areas. In calm weather, grasses at a marsh’s edge take the big hit as the first line of coastal defense — and frequently do just fine. Gooey oil may smother their lower leaves, but mature plants can send out replacements.
> 
> In stormy weather, however, that buffering cordon might be totally breached. Her worst-case scenario: “We get a small tropical system developing in the Gulf, a storm that’s not serious, usually.” But such events raise the water level all along the coast as an assault by waves — driven by perhaps 40 mile-per-hour intermittent winds — pushes water in. Instead of a few inches of water at the feet of wetland grasses, “the whole marsh would flood, leaving the grass covered with water for days,” Reed says. And that allows oil to ride over the marsh and further inland.
> 
> Ordinarily, the warmth of the Gulf and the teeming life within marsh soils will work to degrade oil, Reed observes. In those cases, she says, “doing nothing is a very viable solution,” because tramping in to remove oil would cause more harm than leaving the marsh to clean itself.
> 
> Unless there’s too much oil, Short says. The decomposition of organic matter — and crude oil is organic — can cause degrading microorganisms to use up all of the oxygen. This would smother most sediment-dwelling organisms. The oxygen deprivation would then “halt almost all oil degradation,” he says — which explains why coastal oiling “can be so persistent.” Indeed, he says, in marshy areas, trapped oil can last “up to a decade or more."

I think what people should understand about the Gulf Coast ecosystem in contrast to the more sharply defined rocky Pacific ecosystems that have had oil spills: our Gulf Coast is like a huge marshy sponge that absorbs not only everything that comes downstream by our biggest river, The Mississippi, but also whatever comes in from the south, via normal currents and hurricanes. This, ideally, without pollution, creates an ideal situation for marine life to breed and thrive. It’s been a tremendous, bounteous , creative area for Nature to give life to, in warm waters that give a great boost to diversity. That’s why this is aiming to be more of a trajedy than any oil spill to date. I have a glimmer of hope it might be solved soon. I can’t even think of the right words to say if not.