12:01AM
Chart of the day: Oil spills in historical perspective
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 12:01AM 
To me, just some fascinating perspective. The difference this time is the depth of release, as the graphic notes.
Sorry for the scan. Just could not find it online at Newsweek for some reason.
Reader Comments (2)
Unsure how accurate this can be when the "guestimates" regarding the amount of oil gushing from the well keep changing -- the last of which I noted in the news yesterday suggested the amount leaking every 5 days may be equal to one Exxon Valdez spill.
... Looks like a BP-funded propaganda poster to me.
Michael Smith
No doubt the current blowout is bad (I find it frustrating that a literate professional media insists on calling this a spill btw). However as an engineer I ran some numbers just for fun which provides some additional perspective. Let's just take the worst in history, the post Gulf War at its largest of 336M gallons. That sounds enormous but here is the math:
336,000,000 Gallons / 7.4 Gallons per Cubic Foot = 45.4M Cubic Feet
The Square Root of 45.4M = 6,740
So, big as this mess was if it was contained in a pool just 1 foot deep, it would measure just 1.3 miles X 1.3 miles. That is an area roughly the size of the National Mall in DC.
On land such events are easily contained. When you put it in the water where it can spread out however, then you have a shallow, but VERY widespread mess. Makes a good argument for drilling in ANWR if you ask me.