A History of Major Oil Spills

Santa Barbara : 4.2 Million Gallons Spilled

Jan 30, 1969

The cause of this oil spill came from an whale leak which leaded into a massive explosion. This explosion made the oil spill into the ocean and has still been releasing ever since. They have not been able to come up with a soultion to stop the oil from coming out, so they have been putting straw out so the straw can soak up the oil and then the workers and volunteers can go and pick the straw back up.

Sansinena : 1.26 Million Gallons

Dec 17, 1976

An oil tanker was split in half which caused a explosion and was when the oil spill started happening. This oil spill took them 120 days to sock up the fuel oil.

Amoco, Cadiz : 68.7 Million Gallons

Mar 17, 1978

One evening which was almost night, a thunderstorm hit a supertanker and caused all the oil to spill. The oil covered over 125 miles of oil which was 200,000 tons. This oil spill took over 5 years to recover.

Ixtoc I : 140 Million Gallons

Jun 3, 1979

This was another oil whale that blew out and eventually caught fire. The men that worked there, could do nothing but watch the burning oil.

Exxon Valdez : 10.8 Million Gallons

Mar 24, 1989

This cause of this oild spill was when a American tanker that exploded. This was an aweful oil spill that killed mnay of sea animals and cost worker and volunteers over 1 billion dollars to clean up.

Mega borg : 4.2 Million Gallons

Jun 8, 1990

The Megaborg oil spill was caused by an engine light fire which caused it to spill 4.2 Million Gallons of oil.The oil was pluged up in just a week which is very fast. Most of the oil was also evaporated.

Kawait : 37.8 Billions Gallons

Jan 21, 1991

Iraq was the one who helped make this oil spill happen. It was a explosion which opeened and blazed 650 facilties. The oil leak made over 500 lake beds. U.S bombed pipes= systems to stop the flow of oil.

Hurricane Katrina : 7.98 Million Gallons

Aug 23, 2005

Hurricane Katrina sank about 50 plantforms. This was one of the biggest hurricanes that has ever hit the United States and to this day we are still struggling because there are still places flooded and people do not have there homes back.

Deepwater Horizon : On - Going

Apr 20, 2010

An oil rig out in the ocean owned by BP had an explosive which was caused by a pipe break. It is still pouring out oil as we speak and the workers still do not know what to do to stop it.