Large-Scale Experiments on the Spreading of Oil at Sea and its Disappearance by Natural Factors

ABSTRACT This paper describes those considerations that are of importance in undertaking large-scale oil-spreading experiments. One such experiment involving a discharge of 120 tons of Iranian Light Crude Oil in the North Atlantic is described, and the spreading pattern observed is reported in detail. The observations continued over a period of four days, after which the bulk of the oil had disappeared by natural factors, leaving only a few patches of thicker oil, largely in the form of a water-in-oil emulsion, which was also rapidly disappearing. Blokker constants have been calculated for the observed spreading of the slick, and these are reasonably constant throughout the four-day period.