Oil Spills: A Guided Tour
1 - Spills Happen
A lot can go wrong on the open sea. Heavy seas can drive a ship into dangerous waters. An engine can falter, leaving a heavily-loaded tanker to drift towards a rocky shore or reef. A miscalculation can cause ships to collide or begin a chain of events leading to an explosion or fire.
In the photo at right, fireboats respond to an explosion onboard the T/V Mega Borg, a tanker that spilled crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston, Texas, in 1990. NOAA Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) scientists helped out during the response to this spill.
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