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Researchers beach combing for oil spill residue samples.

Researchers beach combing for oil spill residue samples.
Researchers beach combing for oil spill residue samples.
Researchers beach combing for oil spill residue samples.
Researchers beach combing for oil spill residue samples.
Geolocation data
(30°12′42″N, 88°58′44″W)
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McNulty, Mike
Researchers beach combing for oil spill residue samples.
Still Image
07/10/2013
graphics/Reddy_Lab_Phohts/Photos taken by Mike McNulty/2013-07-10 12.36.15mm.jpg
Info from Bob Nelson:
Collecting samples of oil that washed up on the beach during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Reddy's lab has been collecting samples since the oil spill began and they are storing them as part of our "weathered oil" respository for the Deepwater Horizon collection. They collect oil covered sand (they call them sand paddies) as well as samples that they scrape off rocks. They cover a lot of ground during these trips, typically starting in the Pensacola area (Perdido Beach) and working their way westward stopping at Gulf Shores, and Fort Morgan Beach. From there they take a ferry across Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island, AL and collect more samples.They end up in New Orleans, LA at the end of day 2. Day 3, they head down to Grand Isle, Elmers Island and Port Fourchon (all in Louisiana), collect more samples and then drive back to New Orleans.
Image Of the Day caption:
Students and volunteers search a beach along the Gulf of Mexico for "sand paddies," clumps of sand and oil. The sand paddies they collected were logged into a weathered oil repository for later analysis. Collecting crews have combed beaches from Pensacola, Florida to Grand Isle, Louisiana, and beyond several times each year since the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010. WHOI marine chemist Chris Reddy, research specialist Bob Nelson, and colleagues from Gulf state universities are using sophisticated techniques such as two-dimensional gas chromatography to track the fate of the oil and its breakdown products.
Photo by Mike McNulty
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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