TITLE:

THE GULF OF MEXICO MODELING AND THE BP/HORIZON WELL DISASTER

DATE:

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 214

SPEAKER:

David E. Dietrich, AcuSea Inc.

ABSTRACT:

The dynamics and modeling of the Gulf of Mexico are discussed in relation to the fate of the hydrocarbon material added to it as a result of the BP/ Horizon well disaster. This includes model results from the Sandia Ocean Modeling System, developed under the DOE sponsored Subseabed Waste Disposal Program for risk assessment of hypothetical nuclear material leaking and getting concentrated in the food chain, similar to present concerns regarding the hydrocarbon materials from the oil disaster. A snapshot of model results, first published during early 1994, shows the Loop Current and its associated frontal eddies remarkably similar to their configuration observed during early June, 2010; that configuration includes a frontal occlusion due to a strong frontal eddy that started in the wake of the Caribbean Sea western boundary current flowing past Cozumel Island. The dynamics of the vigorous eddies and deep currents that are ubiquitous throughout the Gulf of Mexico and are energized by the Loop Current that enters through the Yucatan Strait, exits through the Florida Straits feeds the Gulf Stream are discussed. This includes: strong vortex stretching constraint associated with earth rotation that traps material for decades to centuries at depths deeper than the Florida Strait in the Gulf of Mexico; and secondary flows in the bottom boundary layer. Model design and implications are discussed in the light of the Gulf of Mexico dynamics and computational fluid dynamics theory.

HOST:

Jose Castillo

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