Using Natural Abundance Radiocarbon To Trace the Flux of Petrocarbon to the Seafloor Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Authors

Jeffrey Chanton, Florida State University
Tingting Zhao, Florida State University
Brad E. Rosenheim, University of South FloridaFollow
Samantha H. Bosman, Florida State University
Charlotte Brunner, University of Southern Mississippi
Kevin M. Yeager, University of Southern Mississippi
Arne R. Dierks, University of Southern Mississippi
David J. Hollander, University of South FloridaFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2014

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1021/es5046524

Abstract

In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon accident released4.6−6.0×1011grams or 4.1 to 4.6 million barrels of fossil petroleum derived carbon (petrocarbon) as oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Natural abundance radiocarbon measurements on surface sediment organic matter in a 2.4×1010m2deep-water region surrounding the spill site indicate the deposition of a fossil-carboncontaining layer that included 1.6 to 2.6×1010grams of oil-derived carbon. This quantity represents between 0.5 to 9.1% of the released petrocarbon, with a best estimate of 3.0−4.9%. These values may be lower limit estimates of the fraction of the oil that was deposited on the seafloor because they focus on a limited mostly deep-water area of the Gulf, include a conservative estimate of thickness of the depositional layer, and use an average background or prespill radiocarbon value for sedimentary organic carbon that produces a conservative value. A similar approach using hopane tracer estimated that 4−31% of 2 million barrels of oil that stayed in the deep sea settled on the bottom. Converting that to a percentage of the total oil that entered into the environment (to which we normalized our estimate) converts this range to 1.8 to 14.4%. Although extrapolated over a larger area, our independent estimate produced similar values.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

No

Citation / Publisher Attribution

American Chemical Society, v. 49, p. 847-854

Scholar Commons Citation

Chanton, Jeffrey; Zhao, Tingting; Rosenheim, Brad E.; Bosman, Samantha H.; Brunner, Charlotte; Yeager, Kevin M.; Dierks, Arne R.; and Hollander, David J., "Using Natural Abundance Radiocarbon To Trace the Flux of Petrocarbon to the Seafloor Following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill" (2014). C-IMAGE Publications. 33.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cimage_pubs/33