As a result of gas station paying more for their gasoline, this will increase the amount the customer will have to pay for gasoline. According to the Federal Trade Commission, The storm “affected 19% of the United States oil production. Hurricanes Katrina (and a smaller previous Hurricane Rita) destroyed 113 offshore oil and gas platforms, damaged 457 oil and gas pipelines, and spilled nearly as much oil as the Exxon Valdez oil disaster”. This caused oil prices to increase by $3 a barrel, and gas prices to nearly reach $5 a gallon. Because of the devastation of hurricane Katrina many of the United States oil refineries were damaged, causing a decrease in gas supply.
Indeed, Chaitén was a major concern to both the airline industry and the neighbouring country of Argentina. In the first week of the current eruption, five airplanes encountered eruption-cloud ash, and several sustained significant engine damage. Airports in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, up to 2,300 km from the volcano, were forced to close or cancel flights. In addition, volcanic ash from the eruption clouds caused ground transportation and health problems in Chile and Argentina. There were several hundred domestic flights in Argentina and Chile and several dozen international flights from Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina cancelled.
The oil companies were affected greatly by Katrina. “The total shut-in oil production from the Gulf of Mexico in the six-month period following the hurricane was approximately 24 percent of the annual production and the shut-in gas production for the same period was about 18 percent. The forestry industry in Mississippi was also affected, as 1.3 million acres of forest lands were destroyed. The total loss to the forestry industry due to Katrina is calculated to rise to about $5 billion” (Discovery Channel). Local residents were greatly affected in Katrina.
1. Introduction In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform spit nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the largest oil spill in history. The 1989 oil spill surpassed Exxon Valdez's oil spill in 1989 as the largest oil spill ever seen in US-controlled waters and the Ixtoc I oil spill of 1979 as the largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon, an ultra-deepwater offshore rig, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 riggers and injuring 17 others. The fire burned for 36 hours and the Macondo Prospect delivered about 4.9 million barrels of oil before being closed and sealed on 15 July almost three months later.
With an average of 6.3 million kilograms of trash being pumped into our oceans every year, it won't be very long until they reach breaking point. One of the most common pollutants in our oceans is plastic. In the United States, it has been estimated that two million plastic beverage bottles are used every five minutes and that marine litter now contributes sixty to eighty percent of plastic. Estimates for plastic shopping bags range from five hundred to a thousand years to breakdown. This is potentially devastating in that plastic is often mistaken for food by marine animals,
The initial impact was devastating which left about 300,000 people homeless out of a population of about 410,000. Many of the people were evacuated to nearby cities, and the others lived in makeshift tents on the beach of North beach. In fact years later in 1908 these refugee camps were still in operation. The overall cost of the damages was estimated at the time to be 400 million US Dollars (around 8.2 Billion present Dollars). The fires that were a direct result from the main shock and the aftershocks were just as damaging because of the uncontrollable burning from ruptured gas lines.
This earthquake lasted an impressive five minutes and measured at a magnitude 9.0. The Eurasian Plate is dragged under the Pacific plate grinding under it and the upper plate compresses then it springs back when the earthquake hits causing the four mile deep mass of water upwards. When it collapses back, huge waves travel across the ocean as fast as a jet fighter pilot. The height and intensity varies as it travels faster in deeper water (Crane, 2011). At the Fukushima Power Plant there is a crisis because the nuclear reactors can’t be cooled
The Eastern Japan quake was caused by a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake that struck off the coast of Japan at 2.46 p.m on the 11th March 2011 (Friday). The epicenter was 72 kilometers east of the Peninsula of Tohoku at a depth of 32km. The earthquake triggered large destructive Tsunami waves of more than 10 meters that struck Japan quickly and travelled up to 10 km inland. Small Tsunami waves reached other countries as well like Hawaii after few hours. This tragedy has left more than 11,000 people dead with more than 15,000 people missing.
Within this past century, there have been five major floods that were recorded to have claimed hundreds of millions of lives, millions of acres of farmland, destroyed thousands of homes, and billions of dollars of damage. In 1998, a flood of such catastrophic level in the Three Gorges area caused 4,000 casualties, left 14 million people homeless, and created $24 billion in economic loss. The proponents of the Three Gorges Dam believe that it will serve to protect 15 million people and 1.5 million acres of farmland in areas of the Yangtze River that are vulnerable to flooding. In order to do this, the water height of the reservoir upstream from the dam will change according to season. During the dry season, from November to April, the water level will be allowed to reach 185 meters above sea level, but during the flooding months, the water level will be reduced to 135 meters in order to attempt to contain flood waters.
In 2010 ,172 million gallons of oil spilled from a whole on the ocean bed in the Gulf of Mexico. There are four major and significant ways of how the oil is transported to the ocean. The four ways are, oil seeps, consumption, transportation, and extraction. All the ways listed above are harmful and waste our limited amount of oil. Oil seeps accrue when natural seeps emerge from below the sea floor.