The BP Spill - 360 Days Later

This animation shows the possible spread of the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig over one year.


This animation was created from a series of computer simulations by a team of researchers at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.

For the simulations, 5 million buoyant particles were released continuously from April 20 to September 17, 2010, at the location of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The release occurred in ocean flow data from simulations conducted with the high-resolution Ocean General Circulation Model for the Earth Simulator (OFES). The paths of the particles were calculated over 360 days from the beginning of the spill.