The 2010 Gulf Oil Spill Disaster
On April 20, 2010, an environmental disaster of historic proportions occured when an oil drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven workers died in the explosion, and seventeen others were injured.
Before the leak was stopped on July 15, about one hundred eighty-five million gallons of oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico. Marine and wildlife were negatively impacted as a result of the oil in their habitat. Fishing and tourism industries in Lousiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida were also negatively impacted either through actual or perceived damage.
The extent of the environmental and economic damage is not yet fully known.
On the following pages, you will find much more information about the causes and effects of the spill, the role of technology in the clean-up, a timeline of events both pre and post spill, efforts by both private and governement entities to adress the crisis, and the social, political, and economic effects of the spill on the Gulf area.
The oil spill so dominated the news and public consciousness for months, that someone even came up with a computer game about it: http://nerdchallenge.com/oil/.