8BExxonValdez

Question 1 // Exxon Valdez is one of the largest oil spills in the U.S water and the most devastating human caused environmental disaster ever to occur in the world. This accident took place in Prince Williams Sound, Bligh Reef in Alaska on the 24 of March 1989. This was caused by the grounding of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker. The location of the oil spill was estimated of the minimum of 10.8 million U.S gallons, about 40.9 million liters of crude oil. The oil spill covered 1,300 square miles (34000km) of the ocean. //

Q2. What chemicals were involved and why are they bad for the environment and people? What were the chemicals being used for? A chemical involved with the Exxon Valdez oil spill was crude oil. Crude oil is a natural and flammable liquid. It contains a mixture of hydrocarbons, hydrogen (H) and carbon(C), and organic compounds found underground. Crude oil is dangerous when exposed to a naked flame and is also dangerous to wildlife and sea life. Thousands of animals died instantly including 250,000 seabirds, about 2,800 sea otters, 12 river otters, 300 harbor seals, 247 bald eagles and 22 orcas. Crude oil is bad for the environment because it can destroy almost two-thirds of our sea life. People would have to pay a lot of money to clean up the spill, affecting them financially. The oil spill damaged stocks of salmon and herring in the area and several residents, including one former mayor, committed suicide after the spill.
 * Composition by weight ||
 * ** Element ** || ** Percent range ** ||
 * Carbon || 83 to 87% ||
 * Hydrogen || 10 to 14% ||
 * Nitrogen || 0.1 to 2% ||
 * Oxygen || 0.1 to 1.5% ||
 * Sulfur || 0.5 to 6% ||
 * Metals || < 0.1% ||

Four different types of hydrocarbon molecules appear in crude oil. About 20 years after the spill, scientists from the University of North Carolina become aware that the effects were taking longer than expected. They also think that it would take up to 30 years to restore some shoreline Arctic habitats. Crude oil is used for a variety of purposes. Crude oil may be taken to oil factories and the hydrocarbon chemicals separated by sanitisation and treated by other chemical processes, to be used for lots of purposes.

//Q3. Describe the impact the disaster had on the environment and people?// //On the 24thof March 1989 the Exxon Valdezhad a major oil spill. The oil was set free into the waters of Alaska causing innocent animals to die, waters to be polluted and corals to be severely damaged.The animals were probably the worst affected.The seals in Antarctica have a coat that insulates there body, but when they got covered in oil they tried to lick it off and they died from the oil consumption.They also died from being not able to swim as they were soaked in oil, so they died of hypothermia and probably starvation.The sea birds were also extremely affected.The oil soaked their feathers making it impossible for them to fly or take off.They would die of the fumes and the oil would burn their sensitive skin.The water was polluted with the oil and that would cause the fish and other marine life to breathe and swim in the oil causing even more deaths.The corals got saturated with oil and the waters were dirty and oilyFor ages The people were affected because they had to clean up everything and help care for the animal victims.For the Alaskan people the beaches at Alaska will never be the same again.//

**Q5. What was done at the time to fix the problem? Was this the best solution to the problem?** The federal government and state did not (at the time) have a solution that they could act on since the Exxon Valdez oil spill was such a difficult and extended disaster. Later on in the tragedy, they used several methods on water and on the beach. On water, they used a boom (to deflect or collect oil), Burning (which reduces the oil to tarry remainders), Dispersants (which divides the oil into individual molecules) and skimming (a machine that removes oil from the surface). One other solution was to make a dome-like mechanism to protect the oil from coming up onto the surface and pump it into vessels. However, this solution would take at least two weeks to set up. Boom, Burning, dispersants and skimming were attempted solutions but not all were successful. Those were the best solutions to the problem but there could have been other resolutions that would have worked like sorbents and airplanes that drop chemicals from above. It took 10, 000 workers, 1000 boats, 100 airplanes, and the navy army and airforce to clean up the spill, spending about $2.1 billion. **Q6 How the problem was solved?** The measures that have been put to stop the oil spill from happening in the future is that the oil pollution act have designed a double hull oil tanker providing an additional layer between the oil tank and the ocean. A double hull is a ship hull and a contracted oil tanker where the bottom and the sides of the ship have two complete layer of watertight surface. Because Prince William Sound contained many rocky coves where the oil collected, the decision was made to displace it with high-pressure water  Wildlife was severely affected by the oil spill. Thousands of animals died immediately when the oil spill occurred Workers using high-pressure, hot-water washing to clean an oiled shoreline
 * || [[image:file:///d:/Users/08689489/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg width="250" height="162" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OilCleanupAfterValdezSpill.jpeg"]] ||
 * || [[image:file:///d:/Users/08689489/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg width="250" height="162" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OilCleanupAfterValdezSpill.jpeg"]] ||

