May 22, 2010
More than a month after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon accident, oil from the accident lingered near the Mississippi Delta. Sunlight reflecting off the sea surface (or sunglint) illuminated the oil for the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on May 22, 2010. In this natural-color image, the oil slick east-southeast of the delta appears dull gray. Sediment-laden water from the Mississippi is muddy-brown. Due south of the delta, oil-slicked water appears to brush up against sediment-rich water, although the exact boundary of the oil slick is unclear.
References & Resources
- Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response, the official site of the Deepwater Horizon unified command.
- Current information about the extent of the oil slick is available from the Office of Response and Restoration at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration.
- Information about the impact of the oil slick on wildlife is provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Michon Scott.
