Nobody should doubt the magnitude of the problems that the oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico is causing. Estimates of the number of gallons spilled over the past two months range from around 70 million to roughly 130 million — so far. That’s very bad news for the many people along the Gulf Coast and farther inland who depend on tourism, fishing and so forth for their livelihoods.
But the numbers used to quantify the spill are hard to grasp concretely, so The Associated Press dug up some comparisons that help put them in perspective. The comparisons are based on the higher-end estimate of the size of the spill.
Here they are:
* In less than a minute, the amount of water that flows from the Mississippi River into the Gulf equals the amount of oil that the leak has sent into the Gulf in two months. Every five minutes, an additional billion gallons of water enter the Gulf from the Mississippi, and there are about 5 billion gallons of water in the Gulf for every 1 gallon of oil that has leaked from the BP well.
* The oil spilled would fill well over 9,000 average-size living rooms.
* If you could pour the oil that has been spilled so far into the New Orleans Superdome, it would fill it about one-seventh of the way up. But if you poured it just onto a standard football field, including end zones, it would rise 100 yards into the sky.
* A row of gallon jugs filled with the oil spilled thus far would stretch 11,000 miles.
The natural pressure forcing the oil up into the Gulf is astounding — as is the sheer volume of water in the Gulf. That may or may not give you much comfort with the oil still spewing, but it does help put the spill in perspective.