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How To Stop The Gulf Oil Spill (VIDEO)

First Posted: 07/05/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 05:20 PM ET

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Wondering just why it's taking so long to stop that oil geyser spewing 5,000 barrels a day into the Gulf Of Mexico? Al Jazeera shows in simple terms just what happened when BP's offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon sank, and what challenges engineers are confronted with to stop the flow of oil.

WATCH the possible solutions to stop the Gulf oil spill:

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Wondering just why it's taking so long to stop that oil geyser spewing 5,000 barrels a day into the Gulf Of Mexico? Al Jazeera shows in simple terms just what happened when BP's offshore drilling rig...
Wondering just why it's taking so long to stop that oil geyser spewing 5,000 barrels a day into the Gulf Of Mexico? Al Jazeera shows in simple terms just what happened when BP's offshore drilling rig...
Related News On Huffington Post:
 

Oil Spill Extends West Around The Mississippi Delta Oil Spill: Big Oil's History Of Bad Behavior (PHOTOS) Feds Let BP Avoid Filing Blowout Plan For Gulf Oil Rig How The Massive Dome Will Cap The Oil Spill (VIDEO) Gulf Oil Spill Remedies: Corks, Hair Are Among Suggested Ideas BP Caps One Of Three Oil Leaks, Though It Will Not Stop Oil Flow Giant Dome For Gulf Oil Leak Is Best Short-Term Solution Nonprofit Matter Of Trust Uses Donations Of Hair, Fur To Clean Up Gulf Oil Spill Federal Law Could Limit BP's Liability Over Oil Spill Gulf Oil Rig Workers' Families: Remembering The 11 Who Died Gulf Oil Spill Spin: Was The Obama Administration There On Day One? Oil Spill Leads To HUGE Drop In Market Cap Of BP, Halliburton Oil Spill To Hit Florida Keys: Will Hit Loop Current Within 24 Hours Gulf Oil Spill: Government Regulator Downplayed Environmental Impact Of Spill NOAA Warned Interior It Was Underestimating Threat Of Serious Spill Gulf Seafood Update: Feds Shut Down Fishing; Dead Fish, Sea Turtles Wash Ashore (PHOTOS) Oil Spill PICTURES: Effects Of Gulf Oil Spill In Photos Gulf Oil Spill Could Affect Canada's Atlantic Tuna Gulf Oil Spill (PHOTOS): Animals In Peril
Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:
Stuart Whatley Stuart Whatley: The Capitalist Hagiography Has Little Room for Saints Gina Solomon Gina Solomon: Q&A PART 1: Gulf Coast Oil Spill and Your Health -- The Basics Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Sex, Lies and Oil Spills Alison Rose Levy Alison Rose Levy: What the Gulf Oil Spill Has to Do With Your Health Gina Solomon Gina Solomon: The Gulf Oil Spill: Human Health Is Affected too Raymond J. Learsy Raymond J. Learsy: BP -- Star of Stage, Screen, and Radio Robert Creamer Robert Creamer: Common Theme of Gulf Oil Spill, Wall Street Collapse: Unrestrained Corporate Recklessness Georgianne Nienaber Georgianne Nienaber: Defense Mobilizes Louisiana National Guard to Fight BP Oil Spill Charlie Cray Charlie Cray: Time to Drill Down Into Halliburton's Role in Big Oil Spill Carl Pope Carl Pope: Drill, Baby, Drill -- or Whoops, Baby, Spill? Dennis Markatos Dennis Markatos: Gulf Oil Disaster: It's Time to Bike and Walk Stephen Kretzmann Stephen Kretzmann: Leadership Lessons in the Gulf Nikolas Kozloff Nikolas Kozloff: BP's Oily Political Connections, From the Bush to Obama Era Margie Alt Margie Alt: Oil Disaster Creates Stark Contrast With Vision for Clean Energy

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rikitiki51
0 Fans
04:07 PM on 06/19/2010
Have they thought of trying to plug the pipe with a kind of wine stopper. They could make something like that and drive it into the pipe. Better to stop the leak than waste time trying to save the site. They can always drill another well close to that location if they have to.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
1worldaddy
family man w/3 daughters
209 Fans
02:07 AM on 05/06/2010
Al Jazeera beats all US papers and media with an in depth explanation video! All American media should be ashamed of their failure! Netrork and station and profits above news quality and truth is as big a disaster as the oil eruption! This is not a spill it is an eruption! This solution which BP is f'ing with will allow them to still pump oil! The Solution is to bury this entire area with mud LAST WEEK!
The earths crust they have punctured 5,000 feet underwater is spewing rock up the well head right now! If the ocean floor fissures )which could happen since there is seventy thousand psi of pressure on this oil flow) then ocean floor could collapse resuling in over one BILLION gallons of oil in OUR ocean. Remember high school ecology class? one quart of oil poisons 250,000 gallons of water. Extrapolate that all oil deposits have 10 times as much natural gas and my vectors converge on reduced oxygen on the planet within 9m to 18m. "Well well well thats all folks! "Da da da,,,,,, da da Da" as Daffy Duck used to say
Oh check to make sure wills are in order! Oh never mind nobody to inherit anything.
In the voice of Daffy Duck
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mark204
1 Fans
10:03 PM on 05/29/2010
I agree with your comment about our media but son put the tin foil on your head to save yourself from your last paragraph...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
roninroshi
Oni ni Kanabo (鬼に金棒 )
785 Fans
 
12:33 AM on 05/06/2010
This problem can be solved by connecting Rush to the leaking pipe...then the oil is sent thru him and exit's thru his endo thru a pipe...picked up by SP and Bachman at the surface piped thru them to a garbage scow and turned into fodder for Beck,Hannity,Savage and O'Reilly problem solved!
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Bonnie Brill
263 Fans
 
10:48 PM on 05/06/2010
Faux News "Unfair/Unblance" - Always Right But Never Right...

Standing up (ok, sitting down) for our rights!
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mark204
1 Fans
10:16 PM on 05/29/2010
As you can tell from today's date I don't get on this post very often because of dimwits like you; your side of the politics should be connected to a surface pipe that's inserted into the flowing oil and then all they have to do is start talking the same ole BS they normally do and I believe with obama, reed, pelosi leading the way and just talking they would overcome the 70K psi oil leak.

How was that; see we can all do it...take your head out of your a-- and become part of the solution instead of the problem.

You bristle up but if you're not living in the woods (I doubt you are since you're on a computer) and sustain yourself 100% off of nature then you're a hypocrite.

If you're not going to do that then sell your car, home, etc..., and give all the proceeds to the Federal Government and then become a ward of the Federal Government so you can be in your heaven...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
csuciadams
Planner/Engineer Extraordinaire
90 Fans
10:47 PM on 05/05/2010
Good graphic, simple and to the point.
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highground
19 Fans
03:37 PM on 05/05/2010
M.I.T. Design For Oil Clean Up

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oil-paper-0530.html
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mesomorph
32 Fans
01:28 PM on 05/05/2010
Look, I'm not an engineering expert, but neither are they as it turns out.

I don't mean to laugh, but does that dome remind anyone of the 'cone of silence' from the Get Smart tv show?

I will be amazed if that dome works.
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Tom95134
696 Fans
01:27 PM on 05/05/2010
The thing that really bugs me is that this keeps being referred to as a "spill". THIS IS NO SPILL! This disaster is essentially an open pipe from an oil reservoir (Thunder Horse oilfield?) 25,000 ft down and continuously "venting" oil. The oil is under fairly high pressure and it is hot.

The vent will continue until the well is either capped or diverted.

This disaster could have been averted had the United States required that the latest technology in blowout preventers had been installed. Instead, BP pours large sums of money into the pockets of Congress to keep the regulations weak and in many cases unenforced.
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Guy Incognito
Canadian. Sorry.
199 Fans
12:43 PM on 05/05/2010
'Simpsons' did it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O_M55Onztc
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csuciadams
Planner/Engineer Extraordinaire
90 Fans
10:48 PM on 05/05/2010
Awesome! I love Craig Ferguson as well!
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SoCalCaucasian
5 Fans
12:29 PM on 05/05/2010
At first glance I wonder; why not cut off the riser near the wellhead so there is only one point of flow. It seems like this dome with it's piping that send the oil to the surface was intended to get the money machine going.
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mamacat
1233 Fans
12:36 PM on 05/05/2010
And, why did they get the recent GOP administration of Bush and Cheney to excuse the need for a one-half million dollar shut off valve at the base of all of this piping? Some other countries, such as Norway, require the use of shut off valves at the base of the oil piping, but Big Oil got the U.S. government to omit that requirement in American waters.
So let's recap - the GOP under Bush and Cheney gave away about $20 billion dollars per year to Big Oil in the form of reduced taxes, and also reduced the safety requirements for offshore oil rigs. Why am I not surprised?
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Mark Ellsworth
36 Fans
12:28 PM on 05/05/2010
If the twisted broken pipe is leaking out all the oil in three places, why don't they go down there and cut the pipe at the bottom?
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RODERICK45
9 Fans
12:29 PM on 05/05/2010
I call Aquaman right away.
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RODERICK45
9 Fans
12:21 PM on 05/05/2010
I've have to say, I've never notice how similar Middle Eastern accents are to British! Astounding!
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mesomorph
32 Fans
01:30 PM on 05/05/2010
Scores of people of mid-eastern descent receive British education.
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rambot02
A modest proposal...
1303 Fans
11:22 AM on 05/05/2010
4th option: Aquaman!
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Palaver
Men make laws, but the people follow custom.
144 Fans
04:32 PM on 05/05/2010
All his sea creature friends are dead or dying. Oil turned out to be his kryptonite.
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rambot02
A modest proposal...
1303 Fans
06:34 PM on 05/05/2010
:-( Dang, my best idea sinks like a rock.
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LatteLiberals
192 Fans
 
09:58 AM on 05/05/2010
I've seen this explained on Rachel Maddow.
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ekat
65 Fans
12:20 PM on 05/05/2010
Yeah, Rachel's the only person, I believe, in broadcast journalism America who's doing the work. But, this clip is excellent, so kudos to Al Jazeera.
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redheadwoman
152 Fans
09:12 AM on 05/05/2010
Thanks aljazeera---excellent graphics: CNN could learn from you. First place I've seen a clear and concise explanation.
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wdw505
236 Fans
10:00 AM on 05/05/2010
agreed
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collettethehedgehog
My micro-bio is So running on empty
1536 Fans
01:09 AM on 05/06/2010
Funny story.. Al Jazeera is CNN as it used to be before Time Warner. It's structure ie: reporters etc were hired by CNN but then when CNN killed plans for a middleeastern bureau they decided to go ahead and form a news organization themselves. So yep the Brit accents means they were educated UK and probably trained at the BBC.
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