here is some more on oily rain

[ensho]

http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/


Report: “I went out following a very heavy rain here and there was oil all over the place” (VIDEO)


Not sure what to make of these clips filmed along the Gulf Coast… Comments?

HistoryTours, YouTube, June 22, 2010:

From video description

“I went out following a very heavy rain here and there was oil all over the place.”

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.
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*BREAKING* Florida waters test positive for dissolved oil; Researchers “Suspect it’s a lot” (VIDEO)


Affected waters remain open to public for swimming

CNN Newsroom, June 23, 2010 at 9:10 am:

Transcript excerpts

CNN: Another word of caution about that oil in the Gulf

CNN: Apparently there’s oil in the water you can’t see.

CNN: Researchers at the University of West Florida say the samples taken from waters near Pensacola and Perdido Key in recent weeks . .
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etc., etc.

[eShirl]

1. is that because of all the dispersant they were asked to stop using?

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. Am not sure

However, moisture is drawn up (evaporates) into the atmosphere from the ocean, which in turn gathers (condensation) until over land and is released as rain (precipitation). It's entirely possible that through the water evaporation that oil ascends, in part, with that moisture.

[ensho]

3. kick

nt

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Many, if not MOST, fractions of oil are volatile

Oil is made up of mainly alkanes -- the most basic, simplest alkane is methane, but there are a lot of them. And most of what's in petroleum are volatile -- in other words, they evaporate.

Oil itself doesn't evaporate unless it's heated because there's enough non-alkanes and non-evaporating stuff in it to keep it in one place. But the spilled oil is mixed and emulsified in with the water, plus there's a lot of dispersant being used, so the Gulf of Mexico is acting somewhat like a natural oil refinery. Part of the oil gets warm in the sunlight, evaporates into the air, and when it reaches a cold layer, it condenses back into liquid and falls with the rain.

It's possible (but not probable) that even petrochemical fog could form in some places. It would be incredibly flammable. In 1970, the Cuyahoga River itself caught fire from a similar process.

I'm sure a trained chemist would find a lot of errors in my explanation, but I hope I covered the basics.

--d!