Oil-weathering behavior in Arctic environments
Oil-weathering processes in ice-free subarctic and Arctic waters include spreading, evaporation, dissolution, dispersion of whole-oil droplets into the water column, photochemical oxidation, water-in-oil emulsification, microbial degradation, adsorption onto suspended particulate material, ingestion...
| Published in: | Polar Research |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Norwegian Polar Institute
1991
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2345 https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v10i2.6774 |
| Summary: | Oil-weathering processes in ice-free subarctic and Arctic waters include spreading, evaporation, dissolution, dispersion of whole-oil droplets into the water column, photochemical oxidation, water-in-oil emulsification, microbial degradation, adsorption onto suspended particulate material, ingestion by organisms, sinking, and sedimentation. While many of these processes also are important factors in ice-covered waters, the various forms of sea ice (depending on the active state of ice growth, extent of coverage and/or decay) impart drastic, if not controlling, changes to the rates and relative importance of different oil-weathering mechanisms. Flow-through seawater wave-tank experiments in a cold room at ?35°C and studies in the Chukchi Sea in late winter provide data on oil fate and effects for a variety of potential oil spill scenarios in the Arctic. Time-series chemical weathering data are presented for Prudhoe Bay crude oil released under and encapsulated in growing first-year columnar ice through spring breakup. |
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