Word: spill
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...amazingly, less than two weeks after the ship ran aground on a trip from Norway to Canada, much of the visible evidence of the spill had disappeared. The water in the immediate area around the wreck still had patches of oil churning below the surface. But farther out, the sea had returned to its azure state, and there was no spreading slick. While some beaches were stained by puddles of ooze characteristic of spills, the damage to the coast was far from catastrophic...
...Shetlands accident and its aftermath demonstrate the remarkable ability of nature to repair itself -- even when confronted by an oil spill, one of humanity's more dangerous assaults on Mother Earth. The incident also shows that oil spills are not all the same; alarmist forecasts of ecological devastation, which invariably come after a big spill, are often off the mark...
...Spills are usually almost two-dimensional in their initial stage: the oil remains in a layer on the surface in one location. It spreads out slowly and sinks only gradually. But in the churning sea off the Shetlands, the spill quickly became three-dimensional and spread rapidly over a wide area -- at which point, some scientists argue, the concentration of oil is no longer dangerously high. The sea contains bacteria and other microbes that will naturally break down the oil droplets until they are eventually reduced to little more than carbon dioxide and water...
Since the concentrations of oil off the Shetlands are now low, seabirds are less likely to take on a fatal coat of crude than their counterparts in other spills. That is small comfort for the more than 700 birds that died in the early stages of the spill, or to the thousands more that may become sick from ingesting oil while preening or feeding on contaminated food. But the spill seems to have affected fewer birds than expected...
...vigorous wave action worked as a high-energy cleanser of rocks and beaches. Thus the Shetlands are likely to be spared the costly and environmentally disruptive cleanup that followed the spilling of nearly 11 million gal. of crude (less than half the amount lost by the Braer) into Prince William Sound in Alaska. Says Robert Spies, chief scientist for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council: "There is ample evidence that overzealous cleanup can be harmful." The chemical detergents, high-pressure sprays and brushes used to clean beaches and rocks after a spill destroy microorganisms that are an important part...