Science question:

[labelleizzy]

the xkcd comic yesterday just confirms an question I had on Monday.

They keep trying rigid containment systems on the gulf oil spill gusher. (top hat etc, talking about explosive charges to close the hole again...)

would some science-type explain to me why a flexible containment system couldn't be dropped over the top of the gusher, and then the oil directed specifically to some other containment rig? (I mean aside from the whole it's a mile down in icy cold ocean waters and the flexible material might simply freeze and break under all the pressure...)

I'm thinking of something designed like a ginormous female condom, with weights on the wide open end to drop over the gusher, a gargantuan hose (or hoses) at the end to funnel the oil, and for the container, some of those ocean-going bags full of fresh-water that some idiot was trying to sell to southern California a few years ago.

Why can't this mess be contained & channeled, at least part of the time?

(in other related news, I just had a memory of Gary Larson's mosquito-cartoon, where one mosquito is swelled up like a balloon, and the other mosquito says, "Gladys! Pull up, you've hit an artery!" Maybe that comic is more related to this topic than I realized at first.)



Feel free to forward sciency friends here, I genuinely want to understand.

Comments

[maestrodog.livejournal.com]

The mile-icy water thing, as you put it, really is a tremendous hurdle. The pressure at that depth is high enough that most "flexible materials" would be subject to forces that would squeeze them down to maybe 85% of the materials' "air size." Conventional rubber hoses simply won't do such a job...the shrinkage would cause them to pop off or rupture under such deep water. Also, keep in mind we're talking millions of gallons of oil...the bags probably don't hold even a small fraction of that. The right materials would also be difficult to come by to build it too...it would have to be something strong enough to withstand the pressure of the gushing oil and also resistant to salt-water corrosion. It would take months to design and build the apparatus and to properly test it, probably longer than it would take to drill another relief well.