Open AccessResearch Spotlight: Why has oil from the Exxon Valdez persisted so long on beaches?
Author(s) -
Tretkoff Ernie
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2011eo010012
Subject(s) - oil spill , sound (geography) , bedrock , oceanography , geology , hydrology (agriculture) , archaeology , environmental science , geography , environmental protection , geomorphology , geotechnical engineering
The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill released more than 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska, polluting 800 kilometers of beaches. In some areas the spilled oil has persisted on beaches more than 20 years later. To examine the factors affecting the persistence of oil from the spill, Xia et al conducted field studies and numerical modeling of the hydrogeological characteristics of a shallow bedrock beach on Knight Island in western Prince William Sound, the area most heavily polluted by the spill. ( Water Resources Research , doi:10.1029/2010WR009179, 2010)