What happens if we put a lawyer-filled balloon at the bottom of the ocean?

Hint: What digestive byproduct also floats?

Now hold on thar, gal. Who would know science better than a science project?

The pipe is not sealed. The pipe is BROKEN. That's why there's an oil spill. The original Pressure is lost.

The oil is under very tremendous pressure when it's underground. Out of the ground the pressure is less even though it's very deep. The buoyancy of the oil is what is left.

According to what i've seen or read on the internet, after exiting the tube, the oil seems to be very slowly ascending at the deepest parts. At a certain depth it moves faster up, i imagine it's because it expands. Then it continues up until it gets to the surface. At some moment in this journey it loses the natural gas and what remains is, i suppose, the crude oil etc..

Can all these changes happen inside the mile long, 4" diameter, siphon tube so that the oil and gas still get to the surface relying only on buoyancy?

If you want to get GAS to sea level where you can collect it, you need to plug the leak first, then, put in place the oil and gas collecting platform, connect a new mile long pipe to the plugged leak, wait for the pressure to build and continue as usual, since you have fixed the problem.

If BP wants to get crude oil to the surface they have to fix the problem, collect the natural gas in one container so it doesn't escape into the atmosphere, then pump up the oil to a different container or whatever the process is.

This is Not the end yet…

Now we need to investigate the causes of the spill, the amount of crude oil released into the sea, asses the damage done to the ocean, the coasts, jobs lost… etc.… et¢.… et£.… et$.…

I'm neither scientist nor engineer. But as a layman, I'm guessing Sgt's information is based on fact or even experience. The formula he posted may be gibberish to some of us, but I don't think he's trying to get over on us the way you are — unsuccessfully, of course. So, here's that old and oft unanswered challenge for you. Post a link or a credible source that supports your take on suction vs. siphon and what floats under what conditions (and no, the little 6th grade ditty about olive oil in a glass of water doesn't count). Once again, Slick, we ask you to backup your improvised claims with hard evidence. Or, you know, we'll know you're just winging it. Still.

Also, oil at different densities and temperature will stratify in layers beneath the surface. The stuff making it to the surface is only a fraction of the total leakage/spewage.

Just heard that many acres of wetlands have been damaged beyond recovery. They may have to actually burn them.

The "so what" bit there is that if the oil is in a pipe, it's not at the bottom of a column of water anymore, it's at the bottom of either a column of air or a column of itself (if the pipe is airtight), neither of which is the oil more buoyant than -- which takes buoyancy out of the equation.

In that case, in the pipe it's just the upward pressure of the flow of oil vs. the downward pressure of what's above it. If the upward pressure isn't by itself greater than the downward pressure, the only way to get stuff moving up is to relax the downward pressure by creating a vaccuum of sufficient size at the other end of the pipe. Which basically describes what a pump does.

I actually forget what the actual question is that's trying to be answered here, but the physics is kind of fun anyways ;-)

In some ways it would be better if nothing came out of the pipe because then they'd be able to release the tanker.

km

That's why we've tried to keep it simple, well, some of us have. What you're doing is cherry-picking statements that suit your prejudicial stance and bypassing those you find inconvenient. For example carp said "there is no pump on earth that can pump that fast of volume" so where are your links or diagrams of the pump that proves him wrong?


Oh yeah, and waste about two days dealing with you trying to deny it's there. I've pointed out that BP's containment objective would be fulfilled even if the flow of oil stopped halfway up the riser so it's up to the pump lobby to explain the benefits of collecting it in the tanker.


Why not? Practical experiments are the perfect antidote to ignorance.

km

That should have been the "plan" from the very beginning rather than trying to save a tiny bit of profit by siphoning a few barrels off first.