Gulf oil spill could swallow greatest of lakes
Granted, offhshore oil drilling of the kind that created the Gulf mess is prohibited in the Great Lakes. But if such an accident had occurred on the sweetwater seas, just how large an area would it cover?
Check out this site to see the extent of the spill superimposed on your hometown. When you’re through gasping, stick the name of any of the Great Lakes into the slot for location and hit the “Move the Spill” button. If you mentally flip the spill outline and shift it a bit to the west, you can see that even Lake Superior would be pretty well swallowed by the slick.
The other Great Lakes would be smothered.
The producer of this tool says the image is based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and updated at least once a day.
Thanks Dave! Great link to help wrap your head around how big the spill is in relation to familiar perspectives. The NY Times is also doing some <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/25/us/20100525-topkill-diagram.html?src=tptw" really good work translating the science of the spill using web graphics.
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Oh wow. This really does put it in to perspective. Thanks for writing that article.
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[...] 9.) Size of Gulf spill could swallow greatest of lakes [...]
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