Alaska Beat

A silver lining for Arctic oil spills?

According to the Anchorage Daily News, a group of scientists funded by the oil industry studied oil spills in icy and open waters of the Barents Sea, and they have reached a major conclusion. Speaking in Anchorage, they say that it is easier to clean up an oil spill in icy Arctic water than in open, ice-free water. To discover this, researchers in Norway spilled 5,944 gallons of oil onto slushy, icy Arctic water and found that instead of spreading out, as it would do on open water, the oil clung to the ice. This finding contradicts other investigations into the phenomenon, including a failed series of experiments ten years ago in the Beaufort Sea. Read much more here.

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