I've been watching the live Spillcam, and discussing it with folks, here all day long. About 5pm last night, we all started taking note of gas bubbling out of the seabed floor. It started earlier than that, actually-- see pic a few posts down. About 1am this morning, the eruptions began to increase in spew volume.
The First Noted Venting Hole (TNVH).At about 8am, CDT, as I watched, things started changing rapidly. Where the water around the two major gush points used to be very clear, it is now super turbid, and detritus is flying everywhere in a chaotic manner. seabed venting is obvious to see when ROV cameras pan around.
Yet-to-be-confirmed rumors are that the casing wall has finally worn through, about 300 feet below seabed, at an annulus (coupling), and the gas and oil are now finding a new way out to the seabed.
Not good news, as it will make the Top-Kill/Junk Shot nearly ineffectual... At the least, it means that more pressure and mud/cement is going to be required.
We'll see.
See for yourself, here: via BP Live Spillcam
Screengrab of the early Morning Chaos Event. Everthing went up all at once. ROV was perfectly stationary. EVERYTHING went "BOOM" and black:
I am looking for video of this event. Most people started taping after the actual start.The entire range of field erupted at once. Everything. Everywhere, and then the pipe went GUSH!
Update: Here's a screen grab showing the new hole in the seabed. That's not the riser end from a new angle. This was grabbed while the ROV on the riser end was panning around. The BOP is over 600 feet away, so it is not that, either.
What the First Noted Venting Hole (TNVH) turned into 18 hours later.Same pair of broken pipes, Riser end is in same position, except everything has settled down a few feet, and the hole is bigger. that's an ejection rim. Those two broken pipes are more exposed.
A lot of earth got moved down and away all at once.
UPDATE: The riser pipe used to be pretty clean all along it's top. Now, it is piled over with sediment.
Something had happened to the dispersant mechanism, too. Pipes and connectors got knocked loose, green liquid (antifreeze?) was pouring out of the machine, and we watched the ROV repair the leak.
Seabed seems to have sunk rapidly (perhaps scoured away rapidly?). Riser end is now in a big crater. Side pipes more exposed-- different angle?
UPDATE 1:20pm CDT: While watching, ANOTHER major "explosion" occurred. ROV Cam now covered in Oil. It was pushed around by the force of expulsion, or moved back a few feet by controllers. Our Favorite Disaster Bot is taking a beating. Gush seems to have at least doubled in size and volume.
Grabs:
Provided by BSC:
Photo series equating 12:23 minutes from "WTF?" to BOOOM! No need for ROV "reading" lectures, The pipe end billowed out, and then everywhere around billowed up, and then SPLAT!:
Corroborating grabs in order... BOOM! Splat... WTF???:
UPDATE 5:45pm CDT: A brand new MAJOR eruption is happening. tune into the SpillCam at BP.com . It's black, all you can see is a cable. It started with yet another GUSH plume/tornado.
Oh, dear-- now, we can see that that is a LOT of oil-- and a BLIZZARD of Hydrates..
UPDATE 6:03pm CDT: The current eruption is way, way worse than the several that occured earlier. I think this might be a "Main Event" situation.
UPDATE 6:45pm CDT: An hour after the start of this most recent eruption, and it is still just a wall of oil, methane crystals, and gack.
Our Favorite Disaster Bot is damaged, and needs an oil change and the windshield cleaned. Up it goes.
Oh, fuck... look at all the giant plumes in the water column... wow!:
Cut to black.
UPDATE 7:35pmCDT: Live feed of recent blowout froze-up, requiring a reload of page. All of a sudden-- no more black chaos-- just the current clear-water gusher view. I suspect loop tape, but I have the screen grabs from the entire day, below.
If there is another delay in the "Top-Kill/Junk Shot," you'll know why.
Grab of the last moment as OFDB left site, below. You can dimly make out the lights of the lighting rig, lower center of pic image-- That is the signature of a major event... not some bot churn. Those lights should be illuminating more than a foot radius. (click for BIG):
UPDATE 8:15pm CDT: Top-Kill Delayed. Imagine my surprise.
UPDATE 11:51pmCDT: Another major eruption. These are not coming from the riser. They are coming in to view from elsewhere, even in the long, high-view shots. Sometimes from behind the ROV. Twenty-four hours of near non-stop SpillCam viewing, and not one look at the BOP.
Grab of the latest (11:51pm) eruption-- that is the Floodlighting Rig... Occluded:
I am sorry. This is not simple Bot Fan churn. This one came out of the riser end, along with an all-around Ker-BOOM action. Everything went up. One noticed the pipe-end exploding, but then there was gack flying everywhere, all around, too. Impact-directional-- not" going with the flow."
More as I can provide.
I think this stands on its own. I am sure there is more out there to post, and I'll do my best to get it here. A series of bad things happened on Sunday, May 23, 2010 at the Deepwater Horizon disaster site.
If this is becoming sort of routine to clear the RITT (Sippy Straw) , then I wonder why the hell they are continuing with something that isn't working? Send something better down every damned day, until you get the fucker stopped and filtered. Get your Company Einsteins working. New fix and tweak and peak every day... not every other fucking week, BP. Your faulty machineery is showing signs of compromise. Do more, faster.
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