Enormous Oil Seepage in the Gulf of Mexico
Geology.com
June 20, 2007 |

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Oil enters the marine environment from human activity and natural seeps. A National Academy of Science study recently estimated that about 47 percent (We strongly suspect that the actual percentage of natural seepage is much higher as the floor of the ocean has not been mapped the world-wide, and the part that has been mapped has by enlarge only done in a cursorary manner) of the oil entering the marine environment is a result of natural seepage from subsurface reservoirs. The Gulf of Mexico is an area where such natural seepage occurs at a very high rate. Of the 200,000 metric tons of oil seepage that is thought to occur each year, about 150,000 metric tons escapes from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. (Because . . . It is not being drilled and pumped out of these locations)