Disaster in the Gulf: Are Southwest Florida’s Wildlife and Beaches at Risk?

The images are agonizing … fishermen facing ruin, their lives in jeopardy. Sea turtles surfacing through swirls of floating oil. Doomed dolphins struggling in the discolored surf. Disoriented pelicans being cleansed by overworked volunteers. Beachgoers saying that they’re on their favorite patch for one last time. Disaster looms over one of America’s most fragile ecosystems.

Fifty miles to the south, disaster had struck days earlier. Eleven men had lost their lives when one of the world’s technologically most advanced  and operationally safest oil rigs, the Deepwater Horizon, had suffered a series of devastating explosions that sank the vessel and left its newly drilled wells gushing oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico by the tens of thousands of gallons daily. As a growing patch of thickening oil formed over the accident’s epicenter, the coastline’s only ally was the wind. Northerly breezes slowed the oil’s advance on the Mississippi Delta and nearby shores, where workers floated miles of orange-colored floating “booms” to keep it offshore. But when British Petroleum’s first effort to cap one of the Horizon’s gushing wells failed three weeks after the explosions, the writing was on the wall. This would be no contained spill. The question was how much of the Gulf of Mexico would be despoiled.

It’s worth looking at a map to gauge the prospects.

In common with other large water bodies in the Northern Hemisphere, the Gulf of Mexico has a clockwise circulation, its waters being augmented via the Strait of Yucatan between western Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula and leaving to join the Gulf Stream through the Florida Strait between the tip of Florida and Cuba’s north coast. If nothing else affected the Gulf’s circulation, the oil slick would move eastward along the Florida panhandle, then southward along the peninsula’s west coast and eventually eastward into the Atlantic. Indeed, some television commentators projected just such a scenario, suggesting that the oil would ultimately affect East Coast beaches, travel north in the Gulf Stream, and reach as far north as Cape Cod. 

But the situation is more complicated than that. While dominant circulation patterns driven by Coriolis force — generated by the Earth’s rotation — do create clockwise gyres in the Northern Hemisphere (and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, for those of us who remember being taught the old wives’ tale of the bathtub drain running in reverse downunder), surface patterns are far more affected by prevailing winds and other factors. In the case of the Gulf of Mexico, the salinity of coastal waters is affected by the two major rivers, the Mississippi and the Rio Grande, creating vertical as well as horizontal circulations. The submarine topography of the Gulf of Mexico, which is much deeper in the west than in the east, also comes into play. The shallower eastern Gulf increases its potential vulnerability to oil pollution.

So there is no simple answer to the question of risk. Are the beaches and ecologies of Southwest Florida in danger? Not yet, but the longer the oil gushes into the Gulf, the greater the danger will obviously be. Will wind directions help alleviate the risk created by the fundamental circulation of the Gulf’s waters? Since this appears now to be a crisis that will endure for months, it is relevant that summer is the time when the easterly Trade Winds are strongest, and their effect is likely to be to push oil slicks away from Southwest Florida shores. But all westward-moving pressure systems, being circular, have eastward components, and there will be times when the same Gulf breezes we covet on Boca Grande have the potential to bring oil to our shores – unless BP somehow manages to stem the flow of oil.

At the time of writing, that does not look likely.  So the short answer to the question is: yes

**This article by Wiley author, H.J. de Blij, originally appeared in the Gasparilla Gazette, May 12, 2010. Click here to see article in its original format.

Erosion, Mass Wasting, and Geologic Forms

Description: A collection of interactive images and panoramics that highlight geologic forms by photographer Martin van Hemert.  Click on the image to rotate the view, zoom in/out, and get a 360-degree look at erosion, mass wasting, and other concepts in Geology.

Source: http://www.utah3d.net/

Date last accessed: 29 April 2010

Links:
http://www.utah3d.net/SulpherCreek_swf.html
http://www.utah3d.net/DoubleArch1_swf.html

Discussion questions:
What kinds of mass-wasting processes occur where you live?  Can you identify any evidence that would suggest how rapidly or how slowly mass wasting is moving regolith downslope?  Look especially for signs of creep, which occurs almost everywhere.  Some clues are bent tree trunks, curved fences, lobes of soil on grassy slopes, and tilted gravestones.

Cool Globes and Climate Change

Description:  While attending the 2010 Annual Meeting for AAG in Washington, D.C., Associate Editor Veronica Armour took some time off to see the sights.  While at The National Mall the Cool Globes exhibit on climate change caught her eye.  Here she shares the photographs she took of the globes in a PPTs slide show and the website where you can learn more about the exhibit that is going on around the globe!

Link: http://www.coolglobes.com/ 

Date last accessed: 21 April 2010 

Discussion Question:
How do you discuss climate change in the classroom?

 

Hydrothermal Features in Iceland

Description:  A cache of three images looking at hydrothermal features and energy sources in Iceland.  Posted by Dr. Greg Bohr, California Polytechnic State University.

Source: ConceptCaching.com

Date last accessed: 29 April 2010

Link: http://conceptcaching.com/view_a_cache.php?cid=392

Questions for Discussion:
Why do geothermal reservoirs tend to be located near tectonic plate boundaries?

Sedimentary Virtual Tour using Google Earth(tm)

Sedimentary Tour
Tour created by Professor Randy Rutberg, CUNY Hunter.

This virtual field trip is designed to show students examples of sedimentary rocks. The tour is designed so that students see each location from above. This helps them orient themselves geographically. I’ve created a number of locations (pushpins) and have labeled them with key words to help orient myself as I go through the tour. In some cases I have made the “pushpins” invisible so that they would not obscure the view.  These labels could easily be changed. I have included Mesa Verde, CO as I think this demonstrates the link between geology and anthropology. In this case, and in some others, the resolution is not sufficient to see the rock formations. However, the tour can be paused and then the blue squares can be “clicked.” This will bring up photographs of the rock formation.

Learning Objectives:

1.  Identify examples of sedimentary rock.

Download File: sedimentary_tour

On the Cutting Edge

Description: A website for Geoscience faculty On the Cutting Edge offers workshops, activities, online assets, and resources that are up-to-date on current research and teaching methods.  The project is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Date last accessed: 2/22/2010

Link: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/index.html

Earthquakes and Earth’s Interior

The Wiley GeoDiscoveries Media Libary has numerous animations, simulations and interactivities that help to explain the science behind Saturday’s earthquake in Chile.

Here are a sample of some of the media assets available [viewed best using Internet Explorer]:

Asset:  Earthquake Animation
Description: Simple Illustration of an earthquake at a strike-slip fault and the chain of events that may be brought about as a result, including bridge failure and flash floods.
Link:  http://www.edugen.com:30120/geodiscoveries/resources/ch09/print/earthquake_animation/index.htm

Asset: Earthquakes, Plates, and Margins Drag and Drop
Description: A drag and drop exercise in which you must correctly place the names of various plates on a diagram of the globe whose regions are highlighted according to quake depth.
Link:  http://www.edugen.com:30120/geodiscoveries/resources/ch09/print/plates_drag-drop/index.htm

Asset: Tsunami
Description: Simulation of a tsunami along a coastline.
Link:  http://www.edugen.com:30120/geodiscoveries/resources/ch09/print/tsunami/index.htm

Underwater Plate Cuts 400-Mile Gash

Description: Discussion of the plate boundaries related to the recent quake near Chili. 

Source: NYTimes

Date: 2/28/10

Link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/world/americas/28quake.html

Questions for Discussion:

What are some of the important questions about plate tectonics that remain unanswered today?

Plate Boundaries Virtual Tour using Google Earth(tm)

Plate Boundaries
Tour created by Professor Randy Rutberg, CUNY Hunter.

This field trip is designed to showcase the three major types of tectonic boundaries: divergent, convergent and transform. In all cases I have tried to show the large scale features with a view from above and then smaller scale features using the zoom tool. The tour can be paused and additional photos can be shown if desired. 

I use this field trip during my presentation of chapter 1. I try to “wow” the students with technology and stimulate their interest in the world around them. It usually makes quite an impression.

Again, this tour can be customized by removing or changing icons, changing the start location etc.

Download File: Plate_Boundaries

Igneous Virtual Tour using Google Earth(tm)

Igneous Tour
Tour created by Professor Randy Rutberg, CUNY Hunter.

This virtual field trip is designed to show students spectacular examples of igneous activity. I specifically included places that I thought might be familiar to them. In addition, I tried to include sites that might connect to other disciplines, i.e. Pompeii might have been discussed in an archaeology class and Krakatoa in a Climate Class. 

At each destination, it is possible to pause the tour and click on photographs (blue squares) so that students can see additional views. In addition, tours can be further customized to include or not include icons, i.e. the volcano symbol. I chose to begin each tour at Hunter College, but the start point of a given tour can easily be changed.

During the tour I describe features that we have discussed in class, i.e. the shape of the volcano, cinder cones, lava types, explosiveness etc. I use the “field trip” to reinforce the concepts.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify several different categories of volcanic eruptions.

Download File: Igneous_Tour

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