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Science
Neil Bose, Vice President (Research) and Professor, Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering, Memorial University of Newfoundland

How autonomous underwater robots can spot oil plumes after an ocean spill

Gulf of Mexico
Response teams often make assumptions about the way oil behaves in the ocean, but this means oil plumes can go undetected and get missed in the clean-up. (Shutterstock)

On April 20, 2010, the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded, burned, sank in the Gulf of Mexico and terrified the world. This horrific accident — recorded as the largest oil spill in history — killed 11 workers and released 210 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean.

While about a half of the oil rose to the surface, the other half formed a suspended plume of many tiny oil droplets about 1,000 metres below the surface. Its extent and whereabouts couldn’t be determined from above.

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