Pockets of Oil from Exxon Valdez Spill Persist Along Alaskan Coast

http://www.livescience.com/43729-exxon-valdez-oil-persists.html

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Oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill trapped between rocks on a beach in the Gulf of Alaska, more than 20 years after the spill.
Credit: Gail Irvine, USGS

Small pockets of oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill still persist in pockets along Alaska's coasts, hidden by rocks that have kept the elements from breaking down the crude oil, scientists reported yesterday (Feb. 27).

The Exxon Valdez spill was the largest oil spill in U.S. history until 2010's Deepwater Horizon disaster, with nearly 11 million gallons (40 million liters) of oil pouring into Prince William Sound. (For comparison, the Deepwater Horizon spill spewed more than 200 million gallons, or 750 million liters, of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.)

During a study aimed at finding out how long oil persists after a spill, a group of scientists examined the Shelikof Strait coastline southwest of the spill site. They found pockets of oil hidden behind stable boulders that seem to protect the oil from the actions of waves and other forces that break the oil down over time, keeping it in a state similar to when it was first spilled.

"To have oil there after 23 years is remarkable," Gail Irvine of the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center said in a statement. "We have these marked boulders whose movement we've been studying for more than 18 years. The oil itself has hardly weathered and is similar to 11-day-old oil."