[Paddlewise] Brief note on Deepwater Horizon volume measurements

I'll get around to replying in depth to earlier messages when time permits,
but I thought this worthy of pointing out immediately.  Please see all
three of these:
	
	Size of Oil Spill Underestimated, Scientists Say
	http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/us/14oil.html?hp

	Gulf Spill Could Be Much Worse Than Believed
	http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126809525

	BP / Gulf Oil Spill - How Big Is It?
	http://blog.skytruth.org/2010/05/bp-gulf-oil-spill-how-big-is-it.html

Here's the bottom line after reading all three:

	Multiple independent methods of estimating the rate all yield
	MUCH higher estimates that the 5000 barrels/day figure being
	uncritically used in [nearly all] press reports.  "Much" as in
	"an order of magnitude higher".

	BP has the ability to conduct an on-site measurement that would
	likely yield a very good estimate but refuses to do so.

An incisive and (in my opinion as a physicist and engineer) technically
accurate take on this is contained in the quoted box on this page:

	http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/5/13/866263/-Gulf-Coast-Oilpocalypse-at-least-ten-times-worse-than-previously-estimated:-NPR

The key quote is this:

	They could stick a a pitot tube over that leak, actually into the
	pipe just a bit, just holding it out there on a ROV arm, take 2
	minutes worth of pressure readings, and as long as they have a
	reasonable idea of the GOR (they do) they could get within 15% +/-
	of the volume of that leak, both gas and oil.

GOR: gas-to-oil ratio, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_oil_ratio
Pitot tube: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitot_tube

---Rsk
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