Gulf oil still a major issue, even 6 months later!

The hole that is causing all the oil to flow into the ocean is plugged, but the problems that this leak has caused are far from over.
But, let us rememberhow it all started. On 20th of April this year, the Deepwater horizon platform that drilled oil exploded. It slowly sank two days later. However, the long pipe that brought oil to the platform crumpled when the platform sank, and the oil started gushing out.
On July 15th, this year engineers plugged the hole that was causing so many problems. However this was no easy task. The hole was a mile underneath the surface of the water, and the cap that was supposed to plug it weighed about 75 tons. Between April 20th, and July 15th, about 4.9 million barrels of oil were wasted, and released into the ocean. That is enough to fill up 300 Olympic swimming pools. This oil spill is the biggest one in U.S history!
However, the problems are far from over. Some of the oil has reached the surface, but much of it has not. Scientists, government officials, and others are trying to figure out where all this oil went. In August one organization said that about 17 percent of the oil that leaked was immediately collected from the top of the well, before it had an opportunity to go into the water. Also, they said that 5 percent was burned, and 3 percent was skimmed and taken off the surface of the ocean. However, other scientists strongly disagree. One of those scientists, Ian MacDonald says that only about 10% has been taken out of the water, and that 10% could have evaporated. Some other scientists are studying and analysing the oil firsthand, from research ships that are floating around the Gulf. Those ships have mapped a giant cloud of oil floating beneath the surface. This cloud is as tall as a 50-story building, and a mile long. This cloud is expected to be around 3,000 feet beneath the surface of the water. Scientists were shocked with this discovery. This oil cloud could totally destroy some species of deep-ocean fish, but also, they do not understand how oil is still underwater. Oil is less dense then water, and, naturally, it would float to the top of the water's surface. Oil and water cannot mix.
One mathematician, Roberto Camassa, thinks he knows the answer to this mystery. He suspects that the tiny little microbes are eating the oil molecules. A lot of scientists agree with this theory, since lots of oil clouds are slowly disappearing from under the surface of the ocean.
However, we cannot rely on tiny microbes to solve the major eco disaster that we have created. It would take a very long time, and most of the marine life would have already die out. So we need to take the matter into our own hands, and fix the major eco disaster that we, ourselves, have caused.

Link: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63094/title/FOR_KIDS_Gulf_oil_finds_many_paths
Author: Stephen Ornes
Date published: September 7th, 2010