Oceanography | September 2016
Silver Linings
Disasters Can Produce Good Science
On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, working
on the Macondo exploration well for BP in the Gulf of Mexico, killed 11 peo-
ple and led to an estimated five million barrels of crude oil spewing into the
water column from approximately 1,500 m depth. Four months later and six
years ago this month, on September 19, 2010, the wellhead was declared per-
manently sealed. The scope and scale of the environmental disaster caused by
the blowout was enormous. And yet, as with great tragedies throughout his-
tory, ranging from fires that destroyed large portions of London and Chicago
to earthquakes that devastated Lisbon and San Francisco, great disasters
often have a silver lining. In this case, work done in reaction to the massive
Deepwater Horizon oil spill led to a substantial amount of good science that
will improve the response to the inevitable next major spill. Numerous field
programs, experiments, and modeling studies conducted in the aftermath of
Deepwater Horizon by scientists from institutions in the United States and
around the world added tremendously to the knowledge base. Hundreds of
peer-reviewed articles have already been published on the Deepwater Horizon
spill, including several special issues in specialized journals.
This special issue of Oceanography, generously supported by the Gulf of
Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI), supplements this literature by provid-
ing an accessible, multidisciplinary overview not only of results from scien-
tific studies but also of the multifaceted outreach and database efforts sup-
ported under the GoMRI program. Twenty articles provide snapshots of how
far oil spill science has come in the six years since the Deepwater Horizon oil
spill. Their topics range from how crude oil weathers and spreads, to the envi-
ronmental impacts of dispersant use, the short- and long-term effects oil spills
have on coastal and marine ecosystems, and impacts on the health and live-
lihoods of the affected communities. Even with this silver lining, as articles
in this special issue remind us, the story is not yet complete. The outcomes of
studies that will be supported by GoMRI’s final request for proposals, to be
issued in October, will contribute further to the important knowledge base on
how oil spills affect Earth’s environment.
QUARTERDECK
Ellen S. Kappel, Editor
December 2016
Ocean-Ice Interaction
March 2017
International Cooperation in
Harmful Algal Bloom Science
June 2017
Autonomous and Lagrangian
Platforms and Sensors
September 2017
Sedimentary Processes Building a
Tropical Delta Yesterday, Today, and
Tomorrow: The Mekong System
December 2017
Celebrating 30 Years of Ocean Science
and Technology at the Monterey Bay
Aquarium Research Institute
In addition to the special issues articles,
Oceanography solicits and publishes:
• Peer-reviewed articles that chronicle
all aspects of ocean science and its
applications
• News and information, meeting reports,
hands-on laboratory exercises, career
profiles, and book reviews
• Editor-reviewed articles that address
public policy and education and how
they are affected by science and
technology
• Breaking Waves articles that describe
novel approaches to multidisciplinary
problems in ocean science
Special Issues
Oceanography
Upcoming
http://www.tos.org/
oceanography