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IT IS just over a year since the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded, killing 11 workers and releasing into the Gulf of Mexico 鈥� and we still don鈥檛 how much havoc has been caused.
The spill is the second largest in US history, after the 1910 in California spewed 9 million barrels. But despite an army of scientists and volunteers monitoring the area, the spill鈥檚 impact has yet to be quantified. 鈥淲e do not have enough information to determine the overall severity,鈥� says Tony Penn, deputy chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration鈥檚 .
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While much of the methane gas, it is unclear how much oil is left in the deep sea and what its effects are.
of the University of Southern Mississippi is trying to find out what the oil has done to life in the sea floor sediment. He says toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are 鈥渁bove background levels in sediments throughout the continental shelf and slope鈥�. His team is running studies to check that they came from Deepwater Horizon.
In the wake of the spill, to support research into its effects, but only now have teams been . Yeager says he has been 鈥渨aiting anxiously鈥� for funds to become available. The US government has also announced that to fund restoration projects.