On the GoMRI Home Page

Scientists measured the natural abundance of radiocarbon (14C) in sediments near the Deepwater Horizon spill site and estimated the location and amount of carbon derived from crude oil or gas.

Their best estimate was that oil-derived carbon equivalent to 3 – 4.9 percent of reported oil from the 2010 spill may be accounted for by carbon found in the sediments. Most of the deposited petrocarbon (authors defined as oil, gas, and organic compounds produced from chemical and biological alteration of oil and gas) was located southwest of the spill site where oil plumes were observed in the water column. They published their findings in the January 2015 issue of Environmental Science & Technology: Using natural abundance radiocarbon to trace the flux of petrocarbon to the seafloor following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.