墨西哥油污会扩散到大西洋吗？(双语有声)

Are ocean currents likely to carry oil from the BP spill out of the Gulf of Mexico and into the Atlantic? In early June, 2010 many news organizations reported that the answer was yes. They based their reports on a video from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR – a computer simulation showing movement from the site of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico up the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and into the open ocean. But NCAR scientist Synte Peacock – who helped create the video – told EarthSky that it wasn’t depicting the movement of oil, but a color dye.

Synte Peacock: We didn’t try to simulate oil, so we put in a dye which is like a food coloring. It has no physical resemblance to crude oil.

Dr. Peacock said that – within 6 months – a dye would travel to the Atlantic Ocean. Oil behaves differently for various reasons. But she said: We still think it’s very likely that oil will get into the Atlantic.

If it does, she said, people shouldn’t expect oil to coat Atlantic beaches and wildlife. That’s because some oil will evaporate, be eaten by microbes, and become diluted in sea water. EarthSky also spoke with oceanographer Breck Owens at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, whose team has released an underwater robot to directly measure currents in and around the oil spill. He said Gulf currents are too unpredictable to make accurate forecasts of where the oil will travel.